Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out

Chapter 8

Microsoft Project can help you plan, forecast, and track costs associated with the performance of the project. The bulk of your costs is likely to be generated by the resources assigned to tasks. There might also be costs directly associated with tasks.

The starting point is to enter unit resource costs and any fixed costs for tasks. As resources are assigned to tasks, Microsoft Project calculates these unit costs to forecast the cost for each assignment, resource, task, and the project as a whole.

Use this cost estimate to develop your project's budget. Or if the budget has already been imposed, see whether the project plan is in line with the realities of the budget. If not, you can make the necessary adjustments.

Cost planning involves estimating your costs and setting your budget, which is the subject of this chapter. If necessary, you can adjust the project plan to conform to the budget. As soon as you start executing the project, you start tracking and managing costs. At that point, you can compare actual costs to your original planned costs and analyze any variances between the two.

For information about tracking costs, including setting cost baselines and entering actual costs, see Chapter 10, "Saving a Baseline and Updating Progress." For information about managing costs, see Monitoring and Adjusting Costs. For more information about adjusting the project plan to conform to the budget, see Reducing Project Costs.