Author: haroonkhan
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“Why Do This? It’s Too Much Work!”
You might work in an environment where configuration management is an integral part of the project management approach, so this is not even an issue for you. For others, it is often tempting, as previously mentioned, to not give this area proper attention. So let’s answer the question, “Why should we do this?” Why should…
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“Managing Project Deliverables” Means What, Exactly?
By managing project deliverables, we mean the process by which the project work products are controlled. The work products can include anything resulting from project activities, including any deliverable, document, or project management item. And by control, we mean managing the changes to the actual work products themselves. The most common term for this process is configuration management.…
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Introduction
An excellent indicator of the experience level, professionalism, and overall project management maturity of an individual is how much effort and thought this person gives to the management of the actual project work products (deliverables). Why do I say this? This area of project management is one of the most neglected, yet it is a…
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Common Budget Challenges
Let’s take a quick review of the common challenges that a project manager faces when figuring a project budget. By increasing awareness of these factors, you can work proactively to avoid them in your own situation. The Absolute Minimum At this point, you should have a solid understanding of the following: The map in Figure 9.3 summarizes…
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Developing an Initial Budget
After you have your resource requirements and work duration estimates, you can start to develop the budget. Like the estimates for work, it is best to estimate your costs at the work-package level. By taking a bottom-up approach, you are in the best position to identify all your resource needs and develop a more realistic…
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Creating a Project Budget
The actual process of developing a project budget is straightforward. The general challenges lie more with omissions and the foundation on which the budget is based. In this section, we review the details of the development budget and finalize the budget steps depicted in the general project planning process flow in Figure 9.1. Sources of Project…
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Principles of an Effective Budget
Before we get into the details of building a project budget, let’s review the fundamental principles that guide this process:
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The Impact of the Project Budget
Even if you find yourself in an environment where it is not expected that you develop a project budget (instead you are asked to primarily manage schedule and scope), I strongly encourage you to do two things: The project budget estimates all the costs the project will incur, and when they will be incurred. It…
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Introduction
It’s one of the key success factors for projects—completing the project within budget. Yet, for many project managers, especially those managing internal projects, it’s the success factor they have the least awareness about. There are several reasons why this occurs, and it does vary by industry, but most of the reasons have to do with…
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Building the Preliminary Schedule
Now that we have our key inputs (WBS, task relationships, effort estimates, and resource assignments), we are ready to build our initial schedule. There are a few keys to remember here: Value of Scheduling Software If you are not an advocate of scheduling software, or you need to help convince someone else in your organization,…