Introduction

Managers and customers expect to get value for money. A significant number of projects have been cancelled or are seen as a failure because they ran too far over budget. This five-day programme will present the participants with straightforward approaches to developing a cost baseline and setting up a cost tracking system so that the budget is well managed during the project’s life cycle. The programme will cover:

• The PMI PMBoK global standard for managing projects
• Estimating cost techniques, including the Work Breakdown Structure, Work Packages and risk management considerations
• The S-curves for risk and cost estimates
• Control accounts and change control
• Earned Value Management, performance variances and management recovery options

PRE-REQUISITES

Participants should have some experience of working in project teams, although not necessarily as a Project Manager. Some foundational training in project management would be an advantage. All workshop participants are required to bring a laptop computer with Microsoft Office Project, Excel, Word (2007 and above) and Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.

PRE-COURSEWORK

Although there is no pre-course work for this programme it is advisable that course participants consider bringing their own project case to use as a case study. Sensitive information should be disguised or removed. The information required would be:

• A clear overview of their project where they understand the objectives and business case for doing it.
• An Architectural Design diagram (high Level) if appropriate.
• A fairly detailed Requirements Specification, Scope statement and/or Statement of Work.
• A typical project team organisation chart with team skills/roles and day or hour rates
• Budget and timescale constraints/deadlines
• A draft Project Plan, or better, a draft Work Breakdown Structure

The project should be a typical length for their industry – they will apply the principles to this and to a worked example to develop their skills at using the tools and techniques.

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES

This 5-day programme will provide participants with a proven set of methods, processes, tools and techniques to develop a systematic and dynamic project plan to ensure progressive monitoring control and reporting of project cost. This programme will enable participants to:

• Understand the benefits of good project cost control for successful project outcomes
• Use best practice to minimise costs and negative impacts
• Describe a typical project cost management lifecycle
• Explain the action required at each phase of the project cost management lifecycle and understand the significance of each phase
• List the key attributes of cost necessary to understand and manage cost effectively
• Explain the key steps required to improve project estimates, budget and cost baselining, perfomance measurement and analysis, cost monitoring and control during project execution and interpreting and reporting project performance throughout a technical project lifecycle
• Specify key quantitative measures for determining the project performance using Earned Value Management (EVM)
• Provide meaningful project progress reports using EVM together with forecasts of likely outcomes and management options to correct where necessary
• Apply this cost management process to a simple case study

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

Participants will develop advanced project management performance and control skills and knowledge through formal and interactive learning methods. The programme includes case studies, group discussion and critical analysis of case material based on a fictional housing construction project.

Although the programme does not assume prior knowledge of the topics covered in the programme, some knowledge of or exposure to project management training will be an advantage. New concepts and tools are introduced gradually to enable delegates to progress from the fundamental to the more advanced concepts of project cost planning, monitoring and control.

 SEMINAR OUTLINE 

DAY 1 An Overview of Project Management

In this module the participants will learn the PMI PMBoK® globally accepted standard approach to managing projects. This will provide the context for developing and managing the project budget. This module will cover:

• Basic Project Management definitions
• The PMI PMBoK® project management processes
• Project phases and life cycles
• Typical project terminology
• Setting up for success
• The project cost management processes – estimate costs, determine budget and control costs

DAY 2 Developing the project schedule – estimating cost

The basis for good cost control is the development of an accurate Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) on which the work packages depend for accurate estimation. In this module we will create the overall project schedule and learn how the project cost is tied to each individual project activity. This module will cover:

• Understanding project management inputs to estimating cost
• Creating the work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Work Packages as building blocks
• Estimation techniques
• Optimising the schedule
• Estimating the overall project cost

DAY 3 Developing the project budget – determining budget

Whether working on a simple or complex project all project managers need to develop an accurate budget based on the total resources required for their project. Here the participants will learn how to create the detailed budget and the cost baseline necessary for project control. This module will cover:

• Understanding project management inputs to determining budget
• Estimating personnel, materials and equipment costing including overheads Cost aggregation
• Considering the risk management process, risk response planning and risk reserves
• Estimating Risk Response costs, and Reserve or Contingency cost
• The S-Curve for risk and for cost

DAY 4 Utilising Control Accounts and effectively controlling project costs

In this module the participants will learn about setting up Control Accounts, the Project Cost Performance Baseline and the necessary steps to monitoring and controlling the project budget. This module will cover:

• Control Accounts and the Control Account Plan (CAP)
• Understanding what measures are required
• Change Control processes and re-baselining the cost performance baseline
• Understanding project management inputs to controlling costs
• Identifying and managing hours worked
• Tracking costs

DAY 5 Project performance measurement, Interpreting and Reporting EVM results

Whether or not the project manager is familiar with Earned Value Management, it is rapidly becoming the favoured means of tracking project performance. In this module the participants will learn that for large, complex projects the most accurate way to track progress and performance is through Earned Value Management. Participants will learn about measuring and interpreting EVM results and how to report project status to senior management and customers. This module covers:

• What is Earned Value Management (EVM)?
• What are the main measures used for EVM?
• Analysing results – variances, performance indices and forecasting
• Interpreting results and considering options to redress unacceptable variances
• Forecasting and developing response plans
• Reporting EVM to senior management and customers