Budget Control

A project budget is the total sum of money allocated for the particular purpose of the project for a specific period of time. The goal of budget management is to control project costs within the approved budget and deliver the expected project goals. Our definition of a successful project is one that meets four success criteria: that the project’s scope is delivered on schedule, it is delivered within budget and, once delivered, it meets the quality expectations of the donor and the beneficiaries. For project managers to be truly successful they must concentrate on meeting all of those criteria. In reality, most project managers spend most of their efforts on completing the project on schedule. They spend most of their time managing and controlling the schedule and tend to forget about monitoring and controlling the budget. The focus of this chapter is on managing and controlling the project budget throughout the entire project life cycle while relating budget control to the other success criteria.