Learning Curves in Project Cost Estimates [video]

Abstract

Estimating project costs is a primary task for managing projects. Estimates made during the planning stage of a project need to accurately reflect future costs as closely as possible in order to provide a good baseline for tracking budget expenditures during execution of the project. If costs are expected to come down as workers or the organization gain experience, then learning curves must be incorporated into the estimating process to increase the accuracy of the estimates. Often however, during the execution phase of the project, events can take place that interfere with the learning process resulting in actual costs exceeding those estimated. This session will discuss some of these events and how to adjust the learning curves to properly reflect the impact of these events.