Last time I promised to come back on the subject 'Money'. Money is one of the criteria used to control a project. In many cases however the information is about the budget, what was spend en what is left. But what do you know when you have this information? Well you have a reasonable view on the project status as is. But it is 'looking back' on what has happened. Is is usefull? Yes. Is it all you need to know? No!
As a member of the Project Board you will want to know if the project will be succesfull. You will want to know if the project will achieve its targets within the criteria you agreed on with our Project Manager. You will want to know if the product delivered sofar are value for money. You will want to know if the work, still to be done, will be achived within time and budget. Will the remaining product be produced against the agreed budget?
Therefor it is good to know a budget for a project, but wise to know what cost and value is connected to every product the project will produce. So do not agree to a budget based on hours times cost but have an overview of price per deliverables. Every deliverable has it's price and a value. When you spend money on a deliverable is should bring you some value. And if possible this value should be worth the money you spent on it.
So the project budget should be the sum of all product prices and you should have your Project Manager analyze the value you earned sofar and expect to earn with the coming products. With this method it cannot happen that you spent 80% of your budget and achieve 20% of your target. You might think you are on track (80%) but be aware you're having problems (only 20%).
