Friday, November 30, 2012



Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

To prepare for this assignment, I conducted a web search on estimating the costs, effort, and/or activity duration associated with ID projects.  Accurate cost estimates help you complete a project on-budget.  Before you can perform cost estimation you need to have completed the following processes: Define Scope, Create WBS, Define Activities, Sequence Activities, Estimate Activity Resources, and Estimate Activity Duration (Sharma, 2009).

Project Cost Estimating Tools & Techniques
This site offers some tools and techniques for project managers developing a project.  The site takes the project manager through the Project Management Life Cycle.  The Project Cost Estimating Tools and Techniques tab lists tools and techniques that are used by project managers to plan cost estimates.  I liked this site because it offers project management templates and has many other links to help a project manager move easily through developing a project.
Project Management Skills. (2012). Project cost estimating tools & techniques. Retrieved from http://www.project-management-skills.com/project-cost-estimating.html  

Bright Hub PM
This website begins by introducing the reader to the cycle of a project.  It then introduces cost estimating techniques that are commonly used in projects.  The website has an explanation for each technique.  Bright Hub also offers a number of links to aid in the process different process that.  I have used this site to help me with my charts and understand the different parts of the processes that we have already completed.   
Sharma., R. (2009). Tools used to estimate costs in project management. Retrieved from  http://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/54986-tools-used-to-estimate-costs-in-project-management/

4 comments:

  1. Jennifer
    Thank you for sharing your resources, especially the first one with the collection of templates. As we learned in "Introduction to Instructional Design," there are several modules to use throughout the the design process, such as ADDIE, and as it is the preference of the instructional designer as to which module will be used, it is the preference of the project manager as to which template he or she may chose to follow in project management, if any. However, knowing your options is half the battle of remaining organized throughout the project duration, and organization helps build success!

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  2. Hey Jennifer!

    I noticed that some of our other classmates also explored the Bright Hub PM site. "A projects life cycle measures project completing as a function of either time (schedule) or resources (budget)" (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton & Kramer, 2008; p. 76). The Bright Hub site does do a fine job of working through these five phases of project lives. Do you think that every project will go through each of these stages regardless of its size and scope?

    JB

    Portny S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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  3. Hi Jennifer,

    I appreciate the information you provided and sites. This is my first experience with viewing the Hub PM Site and it truly explains the phases. Also, I like the Project Cost Estimating tools & Techniques terms provided and the examples used. I will definitely use the two resources. Thanks

    Cherell

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  4. Hi Jennifer,
    I came across the Hub PM website as well and thought that it was very helpful in explaning the various techniques and breaking them down. Before I saw this site I thought that it would be hard to manage a project but the wesite helped to ease my worries.

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