Project Budget Plan
The project budget plan worksheet is a financial estimate designed to help the project manager and stakeholders assess the direct and indirect costs associated with a project. Project managers should include not only appropriate costs of purchases, but all aspects in the further use and maintenance of the equipment, device, or system. It is intended to give you a project life cycle cost, sometimes referred to as a total cost of ownership. Usually this is a 5 year cost estimate.
Early in the project lifecycle the project manager might employ rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates. As the project progresses and more accurate costs become known, the budget plan can be refined and updated. This same logic applies to project personnel costs. Project personnel costs should always be included in the project budget estimate. For low and some middle risk and complexity projects, this might be a ROM estimate. For higher risk and complexity projects it may be necessary to accurately estimate and even track the actual number of hours project team members work on project tasks.
Be sure to read the instructions and definitions page of the workbook for guidance.
Please send questions and feedback about the use of this template to it-project-management@vt.edu.
Directions For Use
- Save a copy of the IT Project Budget Plan ("TCO") worksheet (Excel).
- Review the "Instructions+Definitions" worksheet page.
- Complete the IT Project Budget Plan worksheet.
- Use worksheet information as appropriate to complete the project scope form.
- If desirable, attach the completed worksheet to the project scope form.
- Store completed worksheet with the other project management documentation in the project document repository.