Synopses & Reviews
All you need to know to successfully schedule projects and control their costs
The first PM guide 100% focused on scheduling and cost control
- Covers schedule/cost development, analysis, monitoring, and control
- Master key skills through case studies, worked examples, graphs, and charts
- For all project managers, at all levels of experience, in any organization
- Complete knowledge for all levels of study and certification
Master all the modern project scheduling and cost control techniques you need, in one focused tutorial!
This guide is 100% focused on the specific principles, skill, and best-practice methodologies of scheduling and cost control. Expert project manager Randal Wilson explains every technique with graphs, charts, and realistic case studies. Wilson doesn’t just present the right formulas: he shows you exactly how to apply them, one step at a time.
Whether you’re an experienced project manager or a newcomer, this tutorial will help you meet your #1 goal: delivering outstanding results, on time and on budget.
Scheduling and cost control are at the heart of project management. To successfully run any significant project, managers must accurately identify required resources, sequence work activities, estimate the costs and time needed to perform those activities, and carefully track progress against their estimates.
A Comprehensive Guide to Project Management Schedule and Cost Control will teach you how to perform all these critical tasks.
Using realistic examples, step-by-step calculations, and simple visuals, Randal Wilson makes scheduling and cost control easier than ever before. Wilson shows how to stay on top of schedules and budgets throughout your entire project, from planning through change management and quality control.
Wilson will help you master crucial techniques ranging from activity decomposition to resource leveling, schedule crashing to activity-based budgeting. You’ll learn how to uncover hidden dependencies, set optimal project milestones, and overcome many other challenges.
With these skills, you can deliver what you promise, when you promise, at the cost you promise. If you want to succeed, no skills are more important.
- Understand the roles and goals of scheduling and cost control
- Construct realistic project plans
- Build an accurate Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Define and sequence activities
- Identify resource requirements
- Calculate activity durations
- Organize, analyze, and document schedules
- Estimate costs using best-practice tools and techniques
- Develop realistic budgets
- Track progress and manage risk
M aster the essential scheduling and cost control skills needed for all levels of study and certification!
Synopsis
Master all the modern project scheduling and cost control techniques you need, in one focused tutorial Randal Wilson's
Project Schedule & Cost Control isn't your typical project management guide: it's 100% focused on the specific principles, techniques, and best-practice methodologies of scheduling and cost control.
Wilson illuminates key issues through the extensive use of graphs, charts, case studies, and worked examples; and calls your attention to crucial issues that "generic" PM books ignore. Coverage includes:
- Project structures, including differences between projects and programs, and how those differences affect costing and scheduling
- Initiation: how projects start, how to develop project charters and stakeholder registers, and how to manage stakeholders
- Planning, in depth: what costs must be addressed, and what schedule constraints must be considered
- Project schedule analysis: activity definition, WBS, and work packages; activity sequencing and diagramming; proven methodologies for estimating resources and activity durations; and schedule development
- Project cost analysis: gathering and estimating all project costs, including labor, materials, vendor bids, subcontractors, contracts, equipment, facilities, and direct/indirect costs.
- Budgeting via top-down, bottom-up, and activity-based methods
- Project monitoring and control: earned value, tracking Gantt, S-Curves, performance reviews, milestone analysis, change control systems, estimate at completion, forecasting, and much more
For both project management newcomers and working project managers who need to sharpen their skills
Synopsis
This is the most complete guide to all the principles and techniques you need to successfully schedule projects and control their costs. Not a broad project management guide, it offers focused coverage of every essential aspect of scheduling and cost control -- including key issues ignored by typical PM guides.
Expert project manager and long-time instructor Randal Wilson makes scheduling and cost control intuitive through the extensive use of graphs, charts, and case studies, and provides all the formulas and worked examples you need to succeed. Writing for both newcomers and working project managers, Wilson covers all this, and more:
- Project structures, including differences between projects and programs, and how those differences affect costing and scheduling
- Initiation: how projects start, how to develop project charters and stakeholder registers, and how to manage stakeholders
- Planning, in depth: what costs must be addressed, and what schedule constraints must be considered
- Project schedule analysis: activity definition, WBS, and work packages; activity sequencing and diagramming; proven methodologies for estimating resources and activity durations; and schedule development
- Project cost analysis: gathering and estimating all project costs, including labor, materials, vendor bids, subcontractors, contracts, equipment, facilities, and direct/indirect costs.
- Budgeting via top-down, bottom-up, and activity-based methods
Project monitoring and control: earned value, tracking Gantt, S-Curves, performance reviews, milestone analysis, change control systems, estimate at completion, forecasting, and much more.
Synopsis
Master all the modern project scheduling and cost control techniques you need, in one focused tutorial! Randal Wilson's Project Schedule & Cost Control isn't your typical project management guide: it's 100% focused on the specific principles, techniques, and best-practice methodologies of scheduling and cost control.
Wilson illuminates key issues through the extensive use of graphs, charts, case studies, and worked examples; and calls your attention to crucial issues that "generic" PM books ignore. Coverage includes:
- Project structures, including differences between projects and programs, and how those differences affect costing and scheduling
- Initiation: how projects start, how to develop project charters and stakeholder registers, and how to manage stakeholders
- Planning, in depth: what costs must be addressed, and what schedule constraints must be considered
- Project schedule analysis: activity definition, WBS, and work packages; activity sequencing and diagramming; proven methodologies for estimating resources and activity durations; and schedule development
- Project cost analysis: gathering and estimating all project costs, including labor, materials, vendor bids, subcontractors, contracts, equipment, facilities, and direct/indirect costs.
- Budgeting via top-down, bottom-up, and activity-based methods
- Project monitoring and control: earned value, tracking Gantt, S-Curves, performance reviews, milestone analysis, change control systems, estimate at completion, forecasting, and much more
For both project management newcomers and working project managers who need to sharpen their skills
About the Author
Randal Wilson, MBA, PMP, serves as Visiting Professor of Project Management, Keller Graduate School of Management, at the Elk Grove, California, DeVry University campus. His teaching style is one of addressing project management concepts using academic course guidelines and text and includes in-depth discussions in lectures using practical application from industry experience.
Mr. Wilson is currently Operations and Project Manager at Parker Hose and Fittings. He is responsible for five locations across northern California and Nevada, as well as project management of redesigns and renovation of existing facilities and construction of new facilities.
Mr. Wilson was formally in the telecommunications industry as Senior New Product Introduction Engineer at REMEC, Inc., Senior New Product Introduction Engineer with Spectrian Corp., and Associate Design Engineer with American Microwave Technology. He also served as Senior Manufacturing Engineer at Hewlett-Packard.
He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) of the Project Management Institute. He acquired an MBA with a concentration in General Operations Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Fremont, California, and a bachelor of science in Technical Management with a concentration in Project Management from DeVry University in Fremont, California.
Table of Contents
Dedication v
About the Author x
Introduction 1
Schedule and Cost of Projects 1
Project Balance 2
What Is Control? 3
Organizational Influences 4
Solutions to Schedule and Cost Control 9
Part 1 Project Development 11
Chapter 1 Basic Project Structure 13
Introduction 13
Projects, Programs, and Portfolios 14
Project Management Versus Program and Portfolio Management 17
Project Life Cycle 23
Review Questions 25
Chapter 2 Initiating Process 27
Introduction 27
Project Origination 28
Project Stakeholders 31
Project Selection 34
Project Charter 52
Review Questions 55
Chapter 3 Planning Process 57
Introduction 57
Develop Project Management Plan 58
Collect Requirements 63
Define Scope 66
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 70
Review Questions 75
Part 2 Project Schedule Analysis 77
Chapter 4 Activity Definition 79
Introduction 79
Activity Analysis 80
Responsibility Assignment 88
Work Authorization 91
Review Questions 95
Applications Exercise for Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 95
Case Study Exercise for Chapter 4 96
Chapter 5 Activity Sequencing 97
Introduction 97
Information for Sequencing 98
Defining Dependencies 102
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) 104
Review Questions 116
Applications Exercise 116
Chapter 6 Resource Estimating 117
Introduction 117
Types of Resources 119
Resource Constraints 122
Resource Requirements 126
Resource-Estimating Methods 128
Review Questions 136
Applications Exercise 137
Chapter 7 Activity Duration Estimating 139
Introduction 139
Duration Estimating Methods 141
Duration Estimating with Constraints 146
Scheduling Conclusions 151
Review Questions 155
Applications Exercise 156
Chapter 8 Schedule Development 157
Introduction 157
Schedule Requirements 158
Schedule Structuring Techniques 162
Schedule Analysis 171
Schedule Documentation 180
Review Questions 182
Applications Exercise 182
Part 3 Project Cost Analysis 183
Chapter 9 Cost Estimating 185
Introduction 185
Collecting Cost Data 186
Cost Constraints 191
Estimating Tools and Techniques 192
Review Questions 198
Applications Exercise for Chapters 9 and 10 198
Chapter 10 Budget Development 201
Introduction 201
Functions of a Budget 202
Budget Development Methods 205
Budget Constraints 208
Cost of Quality 210
Review Questions 212
Applications Exercise 213
Part 4 Project Monitoring and Control 215
Chapter 11 Schedule and Cost Monitoring 217
Introduction 217
Integrated Monitoring 218
Monitoring and Analysis Tools 221
Troubleshooting Tools 233
Monitoring Results 235
Review Questions 239
Applications Exercise 239
Case Study Exercise for Chapter 11 240
Chapter 12 Schedule and Cost Control 241
Introduction 241
Change Control 242
Control Tools and Techniques 247
Control Results 260
Review Questions 263
Applications Exercise 263
Bibliography 265
Index 267