Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

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...

Project managers need the most flexibility when dealing with project cost management.  Some may never have budget responsibilities, while others may have full responsibility.  Those with some duties will also need to navigate many organizational practices about preparing and presenting budgets.

Here are six best practices that will help and apply over a wide range of cost management...

If you have started a business recently, operated one for some time, or run into some unexpected issues, you may be in debt. This is a somewhat normal part of having a business — there are good times, but you also have a fair share of difficulties. However, if your debt is starting to get out of control or it impacts your mental health and your business, this is where you need to make...

How are projects paid for? Generally by financing the project.  The funds that pay for the project may come from operations (for example, from revenues) or from capital expenditure.  Capital expenditures are typically made from the company treasury or reserves.  As a third method, the organization wanting to perform a project can borrow, and then repay, money.  There...

Many introductory courses that include information about budgeting for project managers discuss the idea that a project budget may have to be time based.  That is, the expenditures are divided over weeks, months, or quarters to show how spending will occur over the course of the project.  But the project budgets in an organization only tell a part of the story.  Budgets are about...

[Note: Beginning with last week's article and continuing forward, in addition to tagging articles with knowledge areas, we will be adding new tags for business, people, and technical (including process). We will update past articles over time. This will align content with the new PMP® exam content areas, which in turn, align with the PMI talent triangle areas - Leadership, Technical Project...

Effective sprint planning is essential for the success of any agile project.  The agile project manager should ensure every iteration delivers the highest possible value to customers to stay true to agile values.  Without effective planning, the team will not start the sprint with a shared understanding of the work.  As a result, the team may defer user stories' implementation...

Use these six important tools to keep your project on budget:

1. Contracts: Contracts, whether formal or informal (e.g., MOU), can reveal what aspects of the project are most important. Incentive clauses in contracts can keep everyone on the same page.
2. Reviews: Short interval reviews, such as status reports, should include cost variance analysis. Long interval reviews can provide information...

Getting good estimates is often challenging for projects.  Here are 5 tips for getting better estimates for difficult-to-estimate tasks:

1. Decompose the work further to understand it more fully. Document all assumptions and constraints.
2. Look for similar estimates provided for past projects—network with other projects or organizations willing to share their experience and expertise.
3. Do...