Budgeting Time and Valuing Risk Management

Budgeting Time and Valuing Risk Management

Justify the time it takes to put together a budget for a human resource project. Discuss the forces that would contribute to your budget requirements.

As we have been learning, projects no matter the type require plans. Part of that plan is to determine the internal and external factors that will impact the project. It is important that the PM has full understanding of the project before attempting to produce the final budget.  Factors such as the size of the project, resources needed to deliver the project as well as the cost tend to be the largest determinates in projecting budgets.

 Cost falls into five categories:

Fixed vs. Variable

Direct vs. Indirect

Recurring   vs. Nonrecurring

Regular vs. Expedited

Other

Obtaining the necessary information from tools such as the Business Requirement Analysis, Work Breakdown Structures, Gap Analysis and Drill-Downs will assist in identifying what is required of the project. After obtaining the information activities such as meetings, reporting, work to be performed by other departments need to be placed in the order in which they need to happen. Lastly, it is time to involve others to assist in doing the work. Having completed the pre-work, now the estimating of time can begin. There are several methods one can use to estimate project time.

Bottom-Up:Break larger task down into detailed tasks and then estimate the time needed to complete each task.

Top-Down:Develop an overview of the expected timeline first, using past projects or previous experience to serve as a guide.

Comparative Estimating: Look at the time it took to do similar task.

Parametric Estimating:Estimate the time required for one deliverable; and then multiply it by the number of deliverables required.

Three-Point Estimating:Build in a cushion for uncertainty-give three estimates: one for the best case, another for the worst case, and a final one for the most likely case (Estimating Time Accurately, 2015).

Rank risk management in importance among the previous planning elements of budgeting, resourcing, scheduling, WBS and scope planning. Justify the ranking.

Avoiding uncertainty in any project is an oxymoron. There are risks at every turn of a project However, those risks can be identified and possibly avoided by implementing the necessary planning elements along with a SWOT. At the very least an organization will have a visual display of potential risk. Based on the visuals a decision to proceed or not can be made. Risk management is akin to feedback in performance management. Just as feedback is necessary all along the way so is risk management. It serves as a “steering wheel”  in the project management process.

References

Estimating Time Accurately. (2015, May). Retrieved from Mind Tools: www.mindtools.com

 

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