Project Management ToolBox: Tools and Techniques for the Practicing Project Manager

13

Cost Control

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.

Alfred Hitchcock

Major topics in this chapter are cost control tools:

• Earned Value Analysis
• Milestone Analysis

These tools are designed to help you successfully perform cost control of the project. More precisely, they help you get a handle on revised cost estimates, budget updates, and forecasts of final cost (see Figure 13.1). In the process, you will rely on cost baseline and information about project plan execution, while synchronizing cost control tools with the tools of scope and schedule control and facilitating processes. Together, these tools should enable you to report performance in the ongoing march toward project closure. The objective of this chapter is to offer practicing and prospective project managers the following learning opportunities:

Figure 13.1 The role of cost control in the standardized project management process.

• To become familiar with cost control tools in the proactive cycle of project control
• To choose a cost control tool that matches their project situation
• To customize the tool of their choice

These skills are vitally important in implementing a project and building the standardized PM process.

Earned Value Analysis

What Is Earned Value Analysis (EVA)?

Earned Value Analysis periodically records the past of a project in order to forecast its future (see Figure 13.2 ...