Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage, Fifth Edition

Creating a Project Budget

1. LO 8.3 Apply top-down, bottom-up, activity-based, and time-phased budgeting procedures for cost management.

The process of developing a project budget is an interesting mix of estimation, analysis, intuition, and repetitive work. The central goal of a budget is the need to support rather than conflict with the project’s and the organization’s goals. The project budget is a plan that identifies the allocated resources, the project’s goals, and the schedule that allows an organization to achieve those goals. Effective budgeting always seeks to integrate corporate-level goals with department-specific objectives, short-term requirements with long-term plans, and broader, strategic missions with concise, needs-based issues. ...