Page 89 - Budgeting for Managers
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5




                                 Planning and


                                 Budgeting a



                                 Project





                                                  Measure twice, cut once.
                                                           —folk saying
                                     nything we do just once is a project. Projects are harder to
                                 Abudget because we can’t really use past figures. Even if we
                                 did something similar in the past, prices have changed, the way
                                 we work has changed, and our goal is different than last time,
                                 too. So we need a budget based on what we plan to do this
                                 time, not based on what we did before. We create our project
                                 plan and budget in three steps:
                                    •We define the project.
                                    •We create the work plan.
                                    •We calculate the cost.

                                    The key issue in project management is this: we want to get
                                 something done and we’ve never done it before. We’re creating
                                 a new product or service and we want it to be good, to be of
                                 high quality. But we want it done soon and we have limited
                                 money. Making the right thing, and making it as good as we can


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