Project Cost Management - Overview

Includes the processes involved with planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing and controlling costs sot hat the project can be completed within the approved budget.

There are only four processes in this knowledge area:

1. Plan Cost Management - establishes the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, managing, expending and controlling project costs
2. Estimate Costs - developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project activities 
3. Determine Budget - aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline
4. Control Costs - monitoring the status of the project to update the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline

Estimate costs and determine budget can be viewed as one process and performed by a single person very quickly, however we will outline them as two separate processes. 

Project Cost Management:

• Consider the stakeholder requirements for managing the costs
• Primary concerned with the cost of the resources needed to complete the project work
• May address financial management techniques
• return of investment
• discounted cash flow
• investment payback period

Source: PMBOK 5th ed.