Week 5 - Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

As I get further into this course of Project Management in Education and Training, the task currently presented is planning a project schedule and resource allocation plan. Below I describe two resources I found that may be readily used during the completion of these two tasks. I found both sites to be very informative and offered some very valuable pointers.

This article titled “Estimating and Project management for developing learning materials” was found at http://www.design4instruction.com/estimating/index.html. This site lists very valuable points that will help me estimate costs for my project. The article lists some important principles to keep in mind when estimating the design and development of learning materials. One principle that stood out is “an estimate is just that … an estimate”. It reminded me that when estimating cost s for a project, be sure to add a contingency amount before revealing my cost estimates. Another principle that struck my attention was “the best predictor of the future is the past”. Keep records of all projects, so that the costs and time it took to complete them may serve as a measure for the costs and time to complete the same or similar projects. A third principle was “administration time is not a waste of time”. A project manager is the only thing standing between a project and failure. A project manager makes sure the tasks are done, the products are completed, and keeps rework to a minimum. A percentage of the budget has to be allocated for the project manager.

This article also noted methods for estimating the development of learning materials. The methods included seeking an expert to help estimate the project costs, prototype the product, research budget data for similar projects, and use a methodology to roll up the estimate.

This article titled “Understanding Project Cost Management, is written by Jessie L. Warner. It was found at http://goarticles.com/article/Understanding-Project-Cost-Management/3752356.

References in this article were made to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). It lists estimate costs, determine budget, and control costs as three processes for effective cost management. I found some very helpful information relating to each of the three processes. Techniques for getting a good guess at the costs were listed. Analogous estimating (estimating based on past projects), parametric modeling (estimating based on mathematical formulas), and bottom-up estimating (estimating based on individual work item cost and duration costs) were the techniques listed for making good cost guesses. The article also listed several techniques for determining the project budget, as suggested in the PMBOK. The suggested techniques were to use cost aggregation (combining costs from an activity level to a work package level), reserve analysis (creating a reserve to protect against cost overruns), historical data (consider estimates from previous projects), and funding limit reconciliation (adhering to imposed constraints of the funding limit). Finally, the article listed the PMBOK’s suggested tools and techniques for effectively controlling project costs. The suggested tools and techniques were earned value management (using formulas to measure progress against the plan), forecasting (project future costs by comparing to the current financial situation), variance analysis (analyzing the difference between budgeted costs and the actual costs), and performance reviews (analyzing project costs, schedule, scope, quality, and team morale).