Creating the project budget

Many times, estimating costs and budgeting is a singular process. Because we all use software of some kind, it makes sense that as we add costs to project work, the software is adding them all up together and giving us an aggregated total project budget. That doesn’t mean, however, that everyone will be happy to sign off on that sizeable number and except it outright. In many cases, the business case or a contract is driving the budget from the beginning. If you are given budgetary constraints to work with upfront, then you will spend your time splitting that sizeable number into price tags, rather than the opposite: estimating first, and then budgeting. Either way, the budget and inevitable baseline are time-phased. More money is spent during the execution of project work than it is during planning. Changes are easier to adapt to during planning...