4 ways to manage your project management budget

In the big picture world of project management, ensuring the overall success of a project is a project manager's top priority. If a project goes wildly over-budget (as they often do), it will not be considered a success, even if it's delivered on time and meets end users' needs. That's why project managers need to meticulously manage their budgets.

Here are four strategies for maintaining control of your project budget and preventing massive cost overruns.

1. Continually forecast the budget. A project run without frequent budget management and reforecasting will likely be headed for failure. Why? Because frequent budget oversight prevents the budget from getting too far out of hand. A 10 percent budget overrun is far easier to correct than a 50 percent overrun. Your chances of keeping the project on track with frequent review of the budget plan is far greater than if you forecast it once and forget about it. Read more...