Control Costs

Monitors project costs, measures spending against the cost baseline, and manages changes to the budget, producing cost forecasts. It answers: are we on budget, and where will we end up?

Process Group Monitoring and Controlling Knowledge Area Project Cost Management

Control Costs tracks actual spending against the cost baseline and forecasts the final cost. Earned value analysis — cost variance, CPI, and estimate at completion — turns raw spend into an objective read on cost performance and a credible forecast.

Control Costs: key inputs and outputs — The key inputs feeding Control Costs and the deliverables it produces — full ITTOs are listed below.

The to-complete performance index shows the efficiency the remaining work must achieve to finish on budget. As with schedule, only approved changes alter the baseline, and reserve analysis tracks how contingency is being consumed.

Common pitfalls. Tracking spend without earned value, so you can’t separate efficiency from raw burn; ignoring committed-but-unbilled costs; forecasting by gut instead of from CPI; and quietly absorbing overruns into reserve without analysis.

Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs

Inputs

Project management plan
Project documents
Project funding requirements
Work performance data
Organizational process assets

Tools & Techniques

Expert judgment
Data analysis
To-complete performance index
Project management information system

Outputs

Work performance information
Cost forecasts
Change requests
Project management plan updates
Project documents updates