Guidelines to Heed on for Estimating Project Timeline and Cost

By CIOReview | Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Business projects are an asset to organizations only if completed within the estimated time and investments made, else it can turn out to be a nag. Entities entailed immense pressure of meeting project timeline within the estimated project cost with the best possible outcomes. In order to achieve the same, planning and estimation of both key components are crucial for enterprises across all verticals. There are some guidelines to estimate project cost and timeline.

Task Listing

A well-known and crucial stage to start with. Businesses initially need to list all the tasks they have to carry out during the project. Estimating the budget and time for each task will provide a great start and a significant portion of total requirements.

Analyze Team Expertise and Job Responsibilities

Comprehending team expertise and accordingly assigning job roles in a project is an essential endeavor for project managers. Not all have the same caliber in the same task. It becomes the responsibility of managers to analyze each one's potential for estimating the required time and framing the project timeline accordingly.

Establishing Project Layout

One-size-fits-all concepts have gone obsolete. Each project demands a custom approach for its completion which depends upon available organizational resources. To fit all moving parts of the project, it is essential to figure out a project layout based on the available and required resources. Inventorying the assets and their expected time and cost fills the most of the gap between actual and estimated timeline and investment.

Give a Throwback

It is advisory to review and analyze similar historical projects carried out by the organizations. Businesses will get a clear picture of the gap between estimated and actual obtained outcomes. Previous similar projects also give an insight into the strategies utilized, and their drawbacks can be addressed in the present planning stage.

Mind The Unforeseen

Even the smartest and accurate estimation made lacks covering expenditures and timelapse occurring during the execution. These are some unforeseen cost and time that requires attention while making an evaluation. Therefore, instead of keeping a tight budget and timeline, businesses must reserve an extra 25 percent (approximately) of the total estimate made.

Tracking the Estimated

Once the projected is being executed team leads must keep track of the exact time spent on each task and cost involved at each stage. This allows them to maintain the estimated and provide insights for the future.