Cost estimation is often difficult in standard projects. It is more complex and difficult in international projects. One problem is that there is often no way to link the actual costs in the project to the project plan. Another problem is that budget estimation is performed individually based on the single project leader.

The overall project management approach in this chapter provides for an improvement in this situation.

Cost estimation is improved since the costs can be linked to the template.

The method is then to associate a new project with a template. Then the project leaders review the template to refine the tasks. They can review the issues associated with the tasks in the template and make adjustments. The project leaders can now perform improved estimation using this additional information.

There is an additional benefit of this approach. When management poses questions, asks for budget cuts or budget increases to reduce schedules, the project leaders can use a copy of the template file to perform “what if” analysis. This is more credible to management since it is based on more concrete data than just raw experience of one person.