Project Planning & Budgeting

This article discusses project planning and budgeting, with a focus on cost and quality management planning. It provides an overview of the budget estimation process and techniques used to calculate human resource and material costs. The article also emphasizes the importance of quality planning, assurance, and control in project management. It concludes with a list of references for further reading.

Running Head: PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Project Planning and Budgeting
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Table of Contents
Cost Management Planning.............................................................................................................2
Quality Management Planning........................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

2PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Cost Management Planning
The budget of the project is estimated as follows.
Human Resource Costs
Task Name Duration Predecessors Resource Names Cost
Bungalow Project 170 days $274,800.00
Project Execution 170 days $274,800.00
Clear Ground 2 wks
Labourers
[600%]
$14,400.00
Lay Foundations 3 wks 2
Labourers
[400%],
Tradesmen
[200%]
$25,200.00
Build Dwarf Walls 2 wks 3
Labourers
[200%],
Tradesmen
[400%]
$19,200.00
Oversite Concrete 1 wk 3
Labourers
[400%]
$4,800.00
Floor Joists 2 wks 4,5 Tradesmen $7,200.00

3PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
[200%]
Main Walls 5 wks 6
Labourers
[200%],
Tradesmen
[400%]
$48,000.00
Door and Window
Frames
3 wks 6
Tradesmen
[200%]
$10,800.00
Ceiling Joists 2 wks 7,8
Tradesmen
[200%]
$7,200.00
Roof Timbers 6 wks 7,8
Tradesmen
[200%]
$21,600.00
Tiles 2 wks 9,10
Labourers
[200%],
Tradesmen
[300%]
$15,600.00
Floorboards 3 wks 9,10
Tradesmen
[200%]
$10,800.00
Ceiling Boards 2 wks 11,12
Tradesmen
[200%]
$7,200.00
Skirtings 1 wk 11,12 Tradesmen $3,600.00

4PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
[200%]
Glazing 2 wks 13,14
Tradesmen
[200%]
$7,200.00
Plastering 2 wks 15
Labourers,
Tradesmen
[300%]
$13,200.00
Electrics 3 wks 15
Tradesmen
[200%]
$10,800.00
Plubming and
Heating
4 wks 15
Labourers,
Tradesmen
[300%]
$26,400.00
Painting 3 wks 16,17,18
Tradesmen
[400%]
$21,600.00
Material Costs
It has been found from the case study that the total material and plant costs as $33600.
Total Budget
From the calculations and estimation, the total budget of the project is found to be $
(274800+33600) = $308,400.

5PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
During the estimation of the costs of the project, several techniques have been used. For
calculating the human resource costs in the project, bottom up estimation technique has been
used with the assist of Microsoft Project Software (Heldman, 2018). In this estimation process,
an activity timeline has been created based on the dependencies and durations of each individual
task. After the completion of the timeline, human resources were added to each of the tasks
(Harrison & Lock, 2017). In this project, there were two main human resources – labourers and
tradesmen. In each of the tasks, different numbers of labourers and tradesmen are required. The
numbers are denoted by a percentage e.g. in the task where 6 labourers are required, it is denoted
by “labourers [600%]”. After allocation, the resource costs were set i.e. for labourers, the cost
rate was $30 per hour and for tradesmen, the rate was $45 per hour. After setting these values,
Microsoft Project, automatically calculates the expenditure in each activity as well as the total
expenditure for the human resources.
For calculating the material costs, the unit rates of materials were determined for each of
the tasks (Tonchia, 2018). The total material cost was calculated by multiplying the unit rate and
the number of weeks they were being used in the project.
In addition to the development of the budget, it is also important to develop suitable cost
management plan so that the project does not deviate from the determined resource usage and
cost during execution (Wysocki, 2014). During the project, it should be ensured that right
amount of human resources are deployed to work the specified number of days and the working
hours (10 hours per day and 50 hours a week). Each work must be completed within the
specified end date so that the next work starts at the right time.

6PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Quality Management Planning
Quality Planning
Quality planning is defined as the formulation of a set of guidelines that define the
required quality standard of the project. The quality standards depend on the type and nature of
the project and vary widely. Again, just setting the quality standards is not sufficient for a
project. It is also required to develop a suitable plan for implementation and monitoring of the
quality management plan. The plan should include the steps that are required to meet the quality
standards and suitable monitoring plan to ensure the suitable quality standards are being met
during the project.
Like other projects, this project must also meet certain quality standards. These quality
standards are to be set before the project work is started. In this particular project, the required
quality standards include the following aspects.
Material Quality – Since this project involves the construction of a bungalow, a large
amount of construction materials are utilized through the project (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). It is
important that the materials are of the highest quality as low quality materials can cause
problems like unfinished building, destruction of the building under moderate forces like strong
winds or pressure and others.
Design Quality – In addition to the materials, it is also important to emphasize on the
quality of design of the bungalow (Pheng, 2018). Poor quality designs often lead to severe
complications during construction and may also cause accidents in the near future due to falling
off of building parts and walls.

7PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
Quality of Work – Even though the material and design qualities are high, it is also
important to provide high quality of work in the project so as to utilize the materials to develop
the bungalow based on the actual design provided. For providing the best quality work, the
workers are provided with sufficient amount of time (working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week).
Poor quality of work will be penalized if identified during the course of the project or during the
post project review.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is defined as the set of actions and metrics that are used to determine
whether the quality standards of the project met. In this project, as discussed already, there are
three main quality aspects – material, design and work. In order to assure the standard quality of
the materials, reliable vendors are to be chosen who have good background of supply of good
quality materials at the best possible price (Low & Ong, 2014). There are also several laboratory
tests available to check the overall quality of the materials. For design quality, design engineer
with established professional background must be selected. For the work quality, only skilled
labour with previous work experiences in similar projects will have to chosen and recruited.
Quality Control
In addition to implementation and assurance of project quality, it is important to deploy
quality control measures in order to ensure the project does not deviate from its quality
standards. Penalties can be imposed for both vendors and workers in case they deliver poor
quality materials or work (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). Furthermore, in order to ensure the design
of the bungalow is not poor, a pre-determined design of the building will be provided such that
the engineer can work on it and develop a final design accordingly.

8PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
It is the duty of the project manager to emphasize and monitor on the quality of the
project outcome although in some cases, a specialist quality control manager is recruited to
monitor the quality of the project. Similarly, in this project, a specialist quality control manager
will be appointed in order to supervise the quality of the project. The quality control manager
will have a number of duties that include the following:
 Check the quality of materials purchased for setting up the bungalow
 Consult with the technical specialist to ensure the design of the bungalow is up to
the required quality
 Supervise the project work to ensure the quality of the project work is as per the
requirements

9PROJECT PLANNING AND BUDGETING
References
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Heldman, K. (2018). PMP: project management professional exam study guide. John Wiley &
Sons.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Low, S. P., & Ong, J. (2014). Project Quality Management. Critical success factors for.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Pheng, L. S. (2018). Project Quality Management. In Project Management for the Built
Environment (pp. 113-125). Springer, Singapore.
Tonchia, S. (2018). Project Cost Management and Finance. In Industrial Project
Management (pp. 153-170). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Wysocki, R. K. (2014). Effective project management: traditional, agile, extreme. John Wiley &
Sons.