Software Project Management For Dummies®

Chapter 9. Building Your Project Budget

In This Chapter

• Creating cost estimates

• Creating procurement documents

• Reducing the project scope

• Obtaining additional budget dollars

Projects cost money. Think about all the things you have to buy in order to make your software project successful:

• Developers' time

• Consultants' time

• Development software

• Hardware

• Pizza (food motivates people, especially programmers)

In order to predict how much a project will cost, you have to consider all the things that will be required in order to reach a successful completion. After you create the estimates, then you can commit the funds.

Your managers and customers, however, probably want to review your estimates before shelling out dough. They need to understand how you create the project cost estimates, and are likely to query you on the funds your project needs. In this chapter you discover how to estimate costs and spend the money in a fiscally responsible manner. We also show you how to react when things don't go as planned.

Creating Cost Estimates

A project cost estimate is pretty much a budget. You sit down and you try to account for all realistic costs so that you can give a stakeholder a fairly accurate ballpark figure for the project. To achieve accurate cost estimates, you and your customers need to recognize and understand everything a project requires.

All the necessary information isn't usually available until later in the planning process, but that won't stop customers and your managers from asking you ...