Chapter Seven
Question Outline

Discuss
why many information technology professionals may overlook project cost
management and how this might affect completing projects within budget.

Explain
some of the basic principles of cost management, such as profits, life
cycle costs, tangible and intangible costs and benefits, direct and
indirect costs, and reserves.

Give
examples of when you would prepare rough order of magnitude, budgetary, and definitive costs estimates for an
information technology project.

Give
examples of using each of the following techniques for creating a costs
estimate: analogous, parametric, bottom-up, and computerized tools.

Explain
what happens during the cost budgeting process.

Explain
how earned value management can be used to measure project performance and
speculate as to why it is not used more often?

What
are some general rules of thumb for deciding if cost variance, schedule
variance, cost performance index, and schedule performance index numbers
are good or bad?

What
is project portfolio management? Can project managers use it with earned
value management?

Describe
the different types of software that project managers can use to support
project cost management.