To determine the costs associated with a project It must be made clear that there are several inputs that feed the process. Chief among them is the WBS and the schedule. Other inputs would be the scope of the project, the planning of human resources (salaries, etc.), the risks associated with the project, the current economic situation and the policies and assets of the business.
Advertisements
The way to determine the cost of each activity can be done through various methods. Among the most used are:
- Estimate based on experience: It is usual that managers with some experience already have an idea of the approximate values of the resources, ideas that can be used to budget the cost of the activities. Is this the best way to estimate the costs of a project?
- Estimation by three values (Project Management Institute, 2008): This estimate is calculated by averaging an awareness of the cost of an activity. That is, an optimistic cost, a pessimistic one and an expected cost are calculated and then added and divided by three (a common and current average).
- Analysis of unitary prices: The analysis of unit prices refers to the study of the costs and returns that will be had for an activity in a unit measure. The analysis will give us the cost of the preparation, construction, assembly, etc. based on the use of equipment, tools, materials and labor.
Once the costs of the activities in the schedule have been determined, they must be added in ascending order to then arrive at general figures for each work package.
Advertisements
With all the analysis we can begin to define the final budget that will function as the basis of the project costs.
Have you ever generated a budget for a project?
Download this excel so that you have an idea of how to plan the budget of a project:
Advertisements
The project budget
