Drawing up cost forecasts
MS Project 2007 and 2010: building forecasts

Whether or not you have carte blanche when it comes to managing project costs, the end customer expects you to provide a response that optimizes the quality/cost/time relationship, and you will have to justify, or have your project teams justify, how you have met the requirements of internal and external customers at the best possible cost, particularly during project reviews.

The most sensible approach is to draw up a project budget and monitor expenditure throughout the project. For a project lasting just a few weeks, it may be a matter of comparing what has been achieved with what has been spent, to check that the overall budget has not been exceeded. For a longer project, it is important to prepare the budget according to...