ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the cost budget for a project as a plan with resources allocated for performing the tasks of that project. The project and operational budget differences are outlined. Several budget formats, each designed to serve a specific purpose, are provided. How budget updates can be used for monitoring critical task resources and generating futuristic projections to reflect their expected values at project completion is explained. The relationship between cost budget and time schedule is presented. Identifying project finance and/or resource handicaps by integrating the cost budget and the time schedule is discussed. The chapter also covers how a cost budget can be converted to a selling or bid price and how that can be used as a fair basis for periodic progress measurements and payments.
