Course Introduction

Many projects run into trouble for two core reasons - they fall behind and miss their deadline or they overspend and break their budget. Why? This course explores the management of project costs and project cashflow. Delegates get to grips with project cost management from financial feasibility through managing project cost expectations at project outset and on to detailed cashflow planning. Not only that, but as projects are executed, this course explains how cost variances may be identified and used to forecast overruns and suggest corrective actions.

This OXFORD Management Centre training course presents generally accepted standard project management practices that enable a project manager to focus on project costs, establish a project budget and use it to report and control project performance.

Objectives

By attending this  course you should learn how to:

• Understand the benefits of good project cost control for successful project outcomes
• Perform the action required at each phase of the project cost management lifecycle
• Establish a cost baseline that incorporates all aspect of project work including the contingency needs typically associated with project uncertainty
• Specify key quantitative measures for determining the project performance using Earned Value Management (EVM)
• Provide meaningful project progress reports using EVM together with forecasts of likely outcomes and management options to correct where necessary

Who Should Attend?

The following roles will find this course particularly useful:

• Programme managers and other senior personnel responsible for the governance of projects
• Finance personnel that are interested in expanding their understanding of how project cost data is used to manage the entire lifecycle of projects. These participants will gain insights into how cost data influences financial feasibility, project selection, detailed budgeting and cashflow planning as well as change management and other mechanisms that leverage costs to control project execution.
• Project managers and project team leaders who wish to build upon and consolidate their project management skills
• Project planning engineers and heads who need to develop their project management skills
• Senior project control and business services professionals who have the responsibility for planning, monitoring and controlling, and reporting on project budget and cost performance

Course Outline

The OXFORD training course aims to provide delegates with practical techniques that they can apply to manage the project cost environment. This incorporates practices that support financial feasibility, budgeting, cost control and project closure:

• Understanding the core nature of Projects and how Cost Constraints inform all other aspects
• Conducting Financial Feasibility and Project Authorization to establish Cost Centres
• Establishing the Cost Baseline
• Monitoring and Controlling the Cost Baseline including Authorization of Budget Changes
• Using Earned Value Management to identify Cost Variances and Forecast Cost Needs