274 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Estimating (Photo web hosting)
274 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Estimating the cost of change When you estimate the cost of a change, you should consider not just the part of the project that you re changing, but also other affects of this change. For example, making a change to the project schedule could affect project costs with either a cost increase or cost decrease, depending on how you are modifying the schedule. Likewise, making a change to the project costs may also affect the quality of the project or product. Take all of these costs into consideration when estimating the cost of any change. During the planning phase of your software project, when you create your cost management plan, you identify the methods you might use to identify cost changes in your project. Don t forget to also identify ways to have these changes approved, and don t forget to identify who s in charge of approving these changes (perhaps you need a CCB, as described in the section Creating and following a change control system, earlier in this chapter). It would be a harmonious idea to also identify during the planning phase the methods you would use for estimating the cost of project changes. This should all be decided and documented during the project planning phase in your cost management plan. Forecasting variance In Chapter 14, we tell you how to measure and monitor your costs (and schedule) using earned value management (EVM), so now you have something to look forward to. At any point in time during your project, you should be able to determine how much your actual costs vary from your projected costs. Forecasting variance can be useful for several reasons, but the most important is that your stakeholders will expect this information from you and you will want to know whether and when you need to take corrective action to bring your project costs back in line. If you know your earned value (EV) and you know your actual cost (AC), then you can calculate your cost variance (CV). Here s the least you need to know: To determine the AC, simply add up all the costs for the time period that you are measuring. To determine the EV, look at the amount you budgeted for the work your team has completed at a particular time in the project schedule. To determine the CV, subtract the AC from the EV (CV = EV AC). This difference is how much you vary in the costs that you expected to incur at this point in time and your actual costs for the same time period.
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