Project Cost and Budget Management

What this subject covers

Lesson topics

1. Why Cost Management Is Its Own Discipline
2. Types of Project Cost: Direct, Indirect, Fixed and Variable
3. Cost Estimating Techniques
4. Cost Estimate Accuracy Ranges and Contingency
5. Management Reserve vs Contingency Reserve
6. Building a Project Budget from the Cost Baseline
7. Cost Control: Monitoring Actual Spending Against the Budget
8. Earned Value Management: Combining Cost and Schedule Performance
9. Cost Performance Index and Schedule Performance Index
10. Cash Flow Forecasting and Funding Timing
11. Procurement Costs: Make-or-Buy Decisions
12. Contract Types and Their Cost Risk Implications
13. Value Engineering: Optimising Cost Without Sacrificing Function
14. Life Cycle Costing: Looking Beyond Project Delivery Cost
15. Cost Estimating and Tracking Software
16. Ethics in Cost Estimating and Reporting
17. Cost of Quality: Prevention, Appraisal and Failure
18. Budgeting for Risk: Linking Cost Management to Risk Management
19. Reporting Cost Performance to Stakeholders
20. Common Causes of Budget Overrun
21. Cost Baseline Changes and Formal Re-Budgeting
22. Cost Management in Agile and Iterative Projects
23. Return on Investment and Payback Period for Project Justification
24. Currency and Inflation Risk in Longer Projects
25. Building a Career Specialism in Project Cost Management