Project Scheduling and Cost Management
Learn essential techniques for effective project scheduling, budgeting, and cost control to ensure timely delivery and optimal resource utilization.
January
21,
2026
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM (Eastern Time)
Duration: 1 Day
Hours: 2 Hours
Training Level: All Levels
About the Course:
“Project Scheduling and Cost Management” provides a practical introduction to the planning, estimating, budgeting, and monitoring techniques that help keep projects on time and within budget. Participants learn how to build realistic schedules, identify critical paths, estimate resource costs, allocate budgets, and track performance using simple control tools.
Real-world examples help learners understand how time, cost, scope, and resources interact, and how proactive decision-making can prevent overruns and delays.
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, learners will be able to:
- Explain the relationship between scope, schedule, cost, and resource constraints.
- Create basic project schedules with sequences, durations, and dependencies.
- Identify critical path tasks and schedule risk drivers.
- Estimate costs using common techniques (analogous, parametric, bottom-up).
- Build and manage a project budget with contingency and reserves.
- Monitor cost and schedule performance using simple control metrics.
- Interpret Earned Value Management (EVM) indicators at a high level.
- Apply corrective actions when variances appear.
- Communicate schedule and cost status clearly to stakeholders.
Who is the Target Audience?
This course is ideal for:
- New project managers and coordinators.
- Team leads are involved in planning and resource allocation.
- Professionals transitioning into project roles.
- Business analysts supporting budget management.
- Engineers, IT staff, and operations roles contribute to schedules.
- Small business owners managing time-bound initiatives.
Basic Knowledge:
- Basic familiarity with project work is helpful, not required.
Curriculum
Total Duration: 2 Hours
Foundations of Schedule & Cost Management
- Time, cost, scope, quality: the project constraints
- Why schedules slip, and budgets overrun
- Role of the project manager
Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)
- Breaking work into manageable tasks
- Hierarchical decomposition
- Linking deliverables to activities
Developing the Project Schedule
- Activity sequencing and dependencies
- Estimating durations
- Identifying milestones
- Tools: Gantt charts (conceptual)
Critical Path Method (CPM)
- Critical vs. non-critical activities
- Float/slack concepts
- Schedule compression techniques (crashing, fast-tracking overview)
Resource Planning & Optimization
- Resource loading and levelling
- Bottlenecks and constraints
- Balancing availability and deadlines
Cost Estimation Techniques
- Analogous vs. parametric estimating
- Bottom-up estimates
- Expert judgment
- Common estimating pitfalls
Building the Project Budget
- Direct vs. indirect costs
- Contingency vs. management reserve
- Cost baselines and control accounts
Cost Control & Performance Tracking
- Actuals vs. planned expenditure
- Variance analysis
- Cost drivers and early warning signs
Earned Value Management (EVM) Basics
- Planned Value (PV), Earned Value (EV), Actual Cost (AC)
- Schedule variance (SV) and Cost variance (CV)
- Schedule and cost performance indexes (SPI, CPI)
- Interpreting trends, not just snapshots
Monitoring, Reporting & Forecasting
- Status reporting best practices
- Forecasting final cost and completion date
- Communicating risk and mitigation
Change Control & Risk Impact
- Change requests and approvals
- Impact analysis on schedule and cost
- Avoiding scope creep
Practical Application & Wrap-Up
- Mini case walkthrough
- Lessons learned and prevention strategies
- Recommended tools and continued learning resources