Project Scheduling & Cost Planning Skills

Course Introduction

Time and money are among the most valuable resources in organizational life and often serve as critical success criteria for projects. Given their finite nature and the fact that they cannot be reclaimed once spent, effective management of these factors is crucial. This Project Scheduling & Cost Planning Skills training course delves into strategies for managing both time and budget while balancing other key elements such as quality, resources, and risk. You will explore estimation techniques relevant to various stages of the project lifecycle, learn how to derive the overall cost and timeline, and ensure these align with project constraints. The course also covers how to address the uncertainty inherent in estimates through proactive risk management and reactive issue resolution techniques.

Training Objectives

This training course enables attendees to:

• Estimate Timescales, Costs and Resources for Project Work
• Determine the Overall Project Schedule and Cost Plan
• Apply Risk Management Techniques
• Monitor and Analyse Project Timescale and Cost Performance
• Derive Corrective Actions to Maintain the Integrity of Project Limits

Who should Attend?

This training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals, but will greatly benefit:

• Existing Project Managers
• New Project Managers
• Project Management Team Members
• Project Team Members
• Project Estimators
• Project Finance Professionals

Day One: Project Estimating Basics

• Basic project management definitions
• Triple constraints – Time, Cost, Scope
• Project selection methods
• Defining project scope
• Cost & schedule estimation, Cost budgeting & control
• Project schedule management using the Critical Path Method

Day Two: Developing Project Budget & Schedule Control

• Resource requirements
• Direct & indirect project costs
• Planning and scheduling limited resources
• Options for accelerating the schedule
• Crashing the schedule - How?

Day Three: Managing the Risk

• Risk identification, analysis & management
• Contingency reserve
• PERT, probability and standard deviation formulae
• Network activity risk profiles
• Application: Estimating project duration
• Project risk strategies

Day Four: Measuring Project Performance

• Critical chain analysis and use of buffers
• Comparison of unbalanced with balanced schedules
• Measuring planned progress on schedule
• Risk distribution in contracting
• Actual progress and work conditions
• Managing variable conditions

Day Five: Managing and Recovering Project Estimates

• Schedule variances & cost variances
• Progress control charts -trend analysis
• Schedule and cost variance forecasting
• Schedule and cost recovery analysis
• Schedule and cost recovery plan
• Project recovery baselines and controls