Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Creating a project budget is a critical task in project management. A well-planned and executed budget can help ensure project success by providing a framework for controlling project costs and resources. However, project budgeting can be challenging, especially for new project managers. Today, we’ll look at tips and tricks for creating a successful project budget.

One of the most...

Effective project management is all about ensuring that your project is completed on time, within budget, to the required level of quality, and delights the customer. One of the key ways to do this is by using metrics to track the progress of your project and identify any potential issues before they become problems. Let’s look at seven critical metrics that you should be monitoring as a...

A completed project budget can help you determine if a project is financially viable. With it, you may spend what was expected and get the return on investment you want. But it takes many steps to get the best budget and nail it down before starting a project. Let's dive into what goes into creating that budget:

Define the Project

The first step in creating a budget is to clarify the project...

It's no secret that projects can be expensive. Even working with a small team, labor and materials costs can add up quickly. It's essential to budget, track expenses, and know how much money flows in and out of your project—and when. The best way to do this is by monitoring your project costs and documenting everything, so nothing gets lost or forgotten. Let's look at why it is essential...

One of the most critical tasks in project management is getting the right resources for the right project at the right time. This requires careful planning and communication, especially when tight budgets or other limitations exist. Resource management is a critical element of project management. Resource management is the process of planning, organizing, and controlling the allocation of...

Despite many internet articles to the contrary, PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) and FPA (Function Point Analysis) estimates can be valuable for many projects outside of software-related industries and not just for scheduling.

PERT estimates are a part of a more extensive system and was designed to focus on schedules.  Its benefit is that it mathematically provides everything an...

[Project managers take note!  Starting a business from scratch and without capital is something you may do if you want to start a private practice.  Plus starting a project from scratch without capital is very similar.]

When you have little to no startup capital, founding a business can feel like climbing a mountain. Fortunately, the digital revolution has made starting up easier and...

[NOTE: Want to find out more about project cost management?  You're invited to the launch of PPC Group's new publication, Project Cost Management: Principles, Tools, Techniques, and Best Practices for Project Finance, by Ray Frohnhoefer and Inham Hassen, in June 2022. For more information and to register for the event, click here: ...

To start reserve planning requires a completed risk analysis  (for details on how to complete a risk analysis, see our publication, Risk Assessment Framework: Successfully Navigating Uncertainty) . First, estimate the financial impact for each risk, then compute the estimated monetary value (EMV). The EMV is the product of the likelihood and the impact in dollars or your local...

As you probably know from the Risk Assessment Framework, we firmly believe that having categories and prompt lists can help with brainstorming. While some budget estimates can be computed, a big part of the job is to ensure all costs are included. Therefore, it is critical to consider all the charges, including taxes, fees, and economic conditions. In addition, one or more of these categories...