You’re working on a project with a tight budget. What can you do to make sure you stay within it?

Defining the scope of the project is crucial specially in a tight budget project. Scope creep could happen very easily and that will impact the deadline. It is essential to define the scope of the release and try to include all the “must-haves” in that release. Later, while moving along the project, if any more changes or feature requests are discovered , mostly the “nice to haves” can go in a backlog for future releases.

Scope clarity and confirmation is most Important aspect. Also extremely important to understand complexity of functionality involved along dependencies on other systems, actors etc. The governance for scope management is critical aspect as well. This is the foundation of any Project/Task. To have better control and governance on the scope, good idea is to use the tools, systems and process.

Identifying and estimating right scope is very key stepping stone for a successful delivery on time and on budget. Detailing to the best possible granualrity on Business requirements, functional specs and Use cases ease up on estimation and gives a total control towards project management with specific milestones. Detailed requirements can evolve over a period of time if following Agile and need to be estimated upfront to ensure budget slippages. Understand overall theme of Project and Business Value Proposition upfront to drive the Feature / Epic / Story level scope assessment on further phases.

When you are defining the scope make sure to clearly understand how that scope links to the benefits. Having detailed benefits that are measurable will help you control scope. We all know that scope creep and request for changes are part of most projects, especially larger one's. If you know how the scope links back to the benefits and the business value, then you will have an easier time discussing, making, or rejecting any changes.

Scope defines project timeline, resources and budget! Without it, you won’t have a project.Agreeing on the scope with key stakeholders can be challenging but imperative to project success!

When working on a project with a tight budget, its crucial to be resourceful and strategic to maximise the value you can deliver within the constraints. 1. Prioritise deliverable 2. Cost estimation and tracking 3. Resource optimisation ( explore the option of utilising Domain resources) 4. Flexible planning 5. Open communication 6. Proactive Risk alert and mitigation planning 7. Continuous improvement By implementing these strategies, you can effectively manage and deliver a successful project even with tight budget constraints. Adaptability, creativity and diligent planning are key to achieving desired outcomes while maximizing value within limited resources

In today's world ,we should accept agility in scope and onboard client with same mindset .So scope deliver with client value rather than spend client budget but with no value.Setting right culture and adopting agility will remove budget constrain issue as client started accepting value what scope delivered by team

Define a clear scope Budget with 10% variations Do a POC of most complex part Monitor progress on weekly basis Trust your team

Once the project's scope, timeline, resources, and budget are established and secured, the project manager should ensure to follow additional principles, including vigilance (Monitor expenses and detect issues early), adaptability (Be flexible and make trade-offs.), and clear communication (Align stakeholders and maintain transparency). Consistent application of these principles can enhance the chances of successfully completing the project within the set budget.

In my experience managing scope tightly helps stay within budget and schedule. However for a long duration project change in scope do happen. However what helps is focus on critical/must have requirements first so that you could negotiate for less essential features or delivery. Above all periodically keep checking spend and delivery

Use a reference class - a similar set of projects - to estimate how long they took, and how much budget they required. This eliminates your cognitive biases in the planning stage: as written, you fail at cost estimation here because you don't know what you don't know at this point.

Beim Thema Kosten gibt es verschiedene Aspekte, die zu berücksichtigen sind. Ich nenne zwei konkrete Beispiele: 1. Es ist wertvoller, die Kosten offensiv zu kalkulieren, als zu defensiv. Aus meiner Erfahrung kann ich sagen, dass es für die Entscheidenden einfacher ist, unter dem Budget zu bleiben, als es zu überschreiten. 2. Beim Schätzen der Personalkosten (externe sowie interne) ist es wichtig, eine realistische Perspektive zu haben. Als konkretes Beispiel reicht es nicht, davon auszugehen, dass man einen React-Entwickler für 1200 € pro Tagessatz bekommen könnte, sondern es muss gewiss sein, dass auch einer für dieses Budget zur Verfügung steht.

Estimar los costos una vez definido no es sólo multiplicar el número de horas por el valor hora. En muchos empleos incluía el costo "puesto" por persona (alquiler del inmueble, junto a todas las personas que facilitan el trabajo tales como limpieza, seguridad, etc), su computador, licencias, etc. Si algún colaborador necesita un curso para el proyecto también se puede incluir. Otro costo puede ser los de los materiales de un laboratorio si están diseñando hardware. Por último, debes incluir un % de riesgo, por ejemplo países con alta inflación es importante incluir esta variable ya que el costo será variable durante el proyecto

Define your Scope, Time and number of resources Try to focus on your plan iterations with clear goal,,, Don't forget Quality!

1. Avoid Scope Creep. 2. Do adhere to timeline and deliver the milestones as per project plan. 3. Provide adequate training and user manuals/help documents for early acceptance of the system from the user community. 4. Form the Support channels/Change control board [CCB] well before to effectively manage the feedback/expectations.

The need to remain project realistic cannot be overstated, whether it is based on rollout timeframe, cost or project scope when matched to the available resources / budget to be committed. All elements have to be achievable at the outset.

To ensure you stay within budget, accurately estimate costs: - Break Down Tasks: Divide the project into smaller tasks for more precise cost estimation. - Historical Data: Use past projects as a benchmark to forecast costs. - Expert Consultation: Seek input from team members and experts with experience in similar projects. - Include All Costs: Account for direct (labor, materials) and indirect costs (utilities, software licenses). - Contingency Fund: Add a contingency fund (typically 10-20% of total costs) for unexpected expenses. - Regular Reassessment: Continuously review and adjust estimates as the project progresses and more details become available. Accurate cost estimation is key to managing and staying within a tight budget.

“Triple constraint” - three levers are: 1. Scope - features, functionalities, and requirements that need to be delivered 2. Time - amount of time allocated to complete the project 3. Budget - financial resources available for the project. Adjusting any one of these levers will likely affect one or both of the others. For example, increasing the scope of the might require more time and a larger budget, while cutting the budget might mean reducing the scope or extending timelines to find cost-saving measures. Tips: 1. Cost-Efficient Solutions: Explore cost-efficient solutions without compromising the quality of the deliverables. 2. Eliminate waste and focus on value added activities 3. Align all stakeholders early and act on Purpose

Estimating the cost of a project accurately is essential for staying within a tight budget. Here are some key considerations and practices for effective project cost estimation: - Thoroughly Define Project Scope - Break Down the Project into Tasks - Gather Historical Data - Engage Stakeholders - Consider Resource Costs - Account for Contingencies - Use Estimation Techniques - Review and Revise Estimates Regularly - Factor in External Dependencies - Document Assumptions and Constraints - Seek Expert Advice

To effectively track expenses and stay within budget: - Implement Tracking Tools: Use budget management software for real-time monitoring. - Categorize Expenses: Break down costs (labor, materials, etc.) for easier analysis. - Regular Reviews: Conduct frequent budget checks to compare actual vs. planned spending. - Adjust Quickly: Address overspending immediately to mitigate impact. - Maintain Transparency: Keep the team informed about budget status to foster accountability. - Record Everything: Document all expenses for trend analysis and future planning. Consistent tracking and proactive management are key to staying on budget.

I believe tracking the expense is the most critical activity when a project is under $ crunch. Scope creeps, resource optimization and other measures will just follow in line if we track the expenses better. As part of the expenses tracking, we should have the $ burn down calculated and reported frequently to the team and the management. This helps the team to initiate discussions with the stakeholders to ask for the features' priority. The stakeholders will more likely see the project reality and decide what features they really need in order to deliver the first cut within the available budget. The responsibility of the Project Manager is to communicate this to the Product owner and all the stakeholders to optimally use the budget.

Tracking of expenses in software development world is simply validating what all things are delivered vs remaining, and will we be able to finish remaining work in the budget left.

Das Verfolgen von Kosten ist eine wichtige Aufgabe, die stets einen Soll-Ist-Abgleich erfordert. Um die Ausgaben effektiv zu überwachen, ist es ebenso wichtig, dass die entsprechenden Kostenstellennummern klar definiert sind und das Controlling die benötigten Reports bereitstellt. Beispielsweise ist es nicht zielführend, die Sachkosten alle 4 Wochen zu überprüfen, wenn diese nur alle 6 Wochen aktualisiert werden. Hier gilt es, realistische und machbare Intervalle festzulegen. Dadurch können auch entsprechende Maßnahmen zügig abgeleitet werden.

If resources are working on multiple projects, they will generally charge most of their time to larger project. Ensure resources charges stay within the allocation. Looks for resources you do not recognize and challenge their charges.

1. First make a feasible budget for each phase 2. Use project monitoring/tracking tools 3. Track the project zero slack time 4. Regular review and reporting is necessary

I think, first plan to deliver the milestones (Must Haves) which will make benefit to clients. Other (Nice to have) requirements can be delivered later by keeping an eye on budget. Prepare Gantt chart which will show you the timelines for each milestones and help you to prioritize the requirements.

Tracking expenses includes resources onboarded vs planned. Ensure to keep a close eye on travels. Make sure these are aligned to project needs and plan. Spreadsheets and ERP solutions help track planned vs actual costs.

Project scope is a budget killer and must be managed and constrained from the beginning. Define your MVP (not everything you - stakeholders - think are required actually are), iterate and get constant stakeholder feedback. Constantly groom your backlog and confirm that the most important items are at the top and be ready to reduce the scope as you make your way.

Document all agreements & decisions in writing: This provides a clear record of communication & helps avoid misunderstandings later. Use project mgmt tools to track changes & costs: This ensures transparency & facilitates informed decision-making. If a client insists on a change that significantly exceeds the budget or compromises the project's feasibility, be prepared to politely decline the request & explain the reason behind your decision. By implementing these strategies, you can effectively manage client requests for changes & maintain project control within the agreed-upon budget. Remember, clear communication, collaboration & a well-defined change management process are key to navigating these situations successfully.

Since I'm already engaged in the project, it implies that the scope has been set, costs estimated, and resources allocated accordingly. Additionally, it's understood from the outset that the project operates on a tight budget. Thus, project expenses and optimal resource loading are integral components outlined in the project plan and meticulously tracking these are adhered to consistently. However, as the project commences and progresses, the crucial aspect becomes controlling changes and ensuring there's no scope creep. Adherence to the original scope, staying within defined timelines, resources, and budgetary constraints should enable timely delivery of the project with high quality.

It is extremely important to define what is the agreed scope and what is not. Many a times, especially in product development the boundaries of agreed scope is vague and this makes the Change request process complex. It is also important to identify the cause of every change request with the impact it can have on the project cost and schedule.

Avoid death by 1000 cuts. A small change is still a change adding risk to the timeline, quality and budget. Challenge every change and be realistic about the impact, forcing stakeholders to make eyes-open decisions about whether to accept each request.

Tight control on scope changes with perfect RTM -requirement traceability matrix is must to track the requirement changes at various stages of software development life cycle.

For such projects, you need to keep good track of expenses vs. budget on daily and weekly basis instead of monthly, in addition, make sure to plan purchases ahead of time and not leave anything to the last moment to make sure you have the chance to procure best options at best terms and prices; lastly, keep an eye on your GANT chart to make sure tasks are being done within the timeline to avoid any manpower waste or waste related to delays.

I recommend a two-pronged approach here. 1. Perform a detailed discovery with the customer and ensure all user stories are clearly defined and reviewed with the customer. Hence, they know what to expect at the time of delivery, and requesting changes doesn't even come to the surface. 2. To help stay on track, create a Change Control Board (CCB) to evaluate the impact on time and budget, determine a justified return on investment for every change, and ensure a rigorous evaluation process with key project members and stakeholders to assess the necessity of their requests critically.

Un inadecuado control de cambios, es una de las causas más frecuentes de desviaciones de tiempo y presupuesto. Aún cuando los cambios pueden parecer pequeños y de poco impacto, la sumatoria de pequeños cambios hace la diferencia. Además muchas veces se dilatan las conversaciones de este tipo porque es difícil decirle al cliente "no forma parte del alcance" y se termina generando una bola de nieve.

I am very clear once the scope is clear so don’t need to bother about the changes .. It only come once the understanding of scope and what your team delivering matters

My approach to resource optimization involves automating repetitive tasks to reduce manual effort. As a technologist, I focus on creating custom tools and scripts to streamline workflows. I developed an automation testing framework using rest-assured frameworks for my product. This framework allows QA testers to script testing using a simple YAML file, significantly reducing regression testing time from two weeks with a large QA team to just a couple of hours with a single resource. Additionally, I'm working on automating test objectives and our YAML structure creation using ChatGPT, further optimizing our processes. In my experience, automation enables achieving more with limited budgets by eliminating mundane tasks.

Make good use of Automation for routine / repetitive tasks. Good Mix of Junior and senior resources Testing automation can save good money

Anticipating and mitigating risk is also absolutely important and includes situations like delayed accesses, last minute environment configurations, attrition, etc. One other thing is to ensure the complete team is engaged, informed and there is always a transparent communication channel between team as well as between the manager and all stakeholders

I think optimizing the resources can be very beneficial inorder to save some money in the project. Leveraging low cost (offshore) or shared resources and automating the repetative tasks can save good chunk of money.

Create a detailed budget plan outlining all expenses and allocate funds accordingly. Be realistic about costs and factor in potential contingencies. Make a granular Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and follow it strictly during development. Maximize the use of allocated resources and assets to minimize costs. If necessary, reallocate resources and consider using cross-skilled developers where the work volume on that technology is not covering one developer allocation.

Get the right skilled like-minded resources to complete the project tasks. That's the top priority to get an optimized high-quality output for the client.

Per my experience optimization of resources is very essential and tracking of the utilization is very important as it helps in onboard/ offboard of resources whenever needed.

Resource optimisation is very crucial especially for tight budget projects since the influx of capital is limited. When resource allocation is under planning stage, extra ordinary scenarios should also be taken into consideration with worst case and best case spends. This will really help optimise resources around certain parameters and deploy surplus when needed.

Another aspect in optimising is - cross skilling. Sometimes a certain skillset may not have full day work, instead of onboarding 1 FTE for it - there can be cross skilling and up skilling opportunities carved out within the team to ensure no one is overburdened with work and neither anyone is sitting idle. This will also foster the culture of ‘one team’ to deliver quality work with a work-life balance.

Beim Optimieren gibt es einige Aspekte, die berücksichtigt werden können: Werden die entsprechenden Teammitglieder gemäß ihren Fähigkeiten eingesetzt? Der Vorteil hierbei ist, dass Mitarbeiter nicht nur zufriedener, sondern auch produktiver sind, wenn sie ihre Fähigkeiten einbringen können. Gibt es unnötige Redundanzen in der Entwicklung, Steuerung oder im Testing? Oftmals werden Aufgaben doppelt angegangen, es finden zu viele Meetings statt oder es nehmen zu viele Personen an den Meetings teil. Das Testing ist eine der wichtigsten Aufgaben in einem Softwareprojekt. Trotzdem muss genau geprüft werden, wann und in welchem Umfang Tests durchgeführt werden.

One thing I feel good is to establish a cost of delay as contract clause. The ownership of delay needs to be owned by many parties. Decision making on time is often a key reason for schedule overrun that results in cost overrun. Availability of all decision makers for projects executed by global team is often a challenge that goes unnoticed and has no binding on the contract. When cost is a challenge delay for decision is a critical aspect to be reviewed. All stakeholders should be responsible and care for such events in project life cycle.

Stay focused on the outcomes that program intend to create . Be open to cut scope which are fancy and a baggage in the program .

Be aware of the some of the trade offs involved in a cost controlled environment: - ideally in a systems replacement project, decommissioning the replaced systems should be costed for but a cost squeeze may mean this activity gets pushed further out - operational costs tend to be underestimated. Choosing open source may seem a cheap option in the short run but patching, updates and security assessments may make this a much more expensive option in the long run. Choosing software as a service may be better option depending on your overall cost envelope.

Make sure you put in place a really efficient and effective decision making framework, as the velocity of scope decisions, user story sign off, etc significantly drives the velocity and value delivered, especially with modern low code platforms where development is accelerated.

1. Identify opportunities for productivity improvement. Ex: Automation, Reusability, Building accelerators etc. 2. Resource optimization. 3.Identify risks and resolve in timely manner. 4. Refine scope working with business and eliminate least priority items.(Last option as business would resist for scope change)

Below are few tips which I follow Close tracking of project Reduce iterations by reducing mistakes Clear and concise client communication (internal as well as external) Share the challenge with all stakeholders Ultimately client need a quality deliverable and that comes at a cost and that need to be openly communicated. Healthy progress of project by breaking it into smaller deliverables help increase client confidence in your ability and give u leverage to ask for more budget.

All said and done, In project management, Ants view (Daily stand up)is different from birds eye view (RAG Project Status). So meticulous monitoring to ensure we have tangible outputs on a daily basis is a must. This is the only way we can figure scope creep vs cost overshoot vs effort expended. There is no two ways about it and that too when we specifically know it is a fixed budget.

Below lists to be stringently followed in a tight budget project. 1. Define the scope very clearly like - in scope / out of scope - testable / non testable - functional / non functional - internal and external dependency for each requirement. etc 2. Identify each possible risk which can result the variance to occur. Mitigation plan could be to add additional cost/timeline if they occur. 3. Identify each and every expense like Engineering cost / travel / tools / licenses / vendors / suppliers / fright / exchange cost / etc 4. See what can be re-used from the Organization Asset Library Modules, tools , source code, etc. 5. Maintain recommended Team Pyramid. 6. Identify scope creep and communicate it in time.

Costs for run-time is an important aspect. Cheap to build but high outflow month on month is a far more expensive option so consider the run time costs in Additional to build costs