Given a major project to work on, with money no obstacle, I'm sure that any one of us could come up with something hugely impressive. Unfortunately, money inevitably does provide a obstacle, and a rather substantial one at that. Whatever kind of project you're working on, in whatever kind of business or for whatever kind of purpose, understanding the costs and keeping them under control is always absolutely critical.

Cost issues are something that Gwen is wholly familiar with, as a project manager for a fictitious local education authority. She's about to embark upon a very large and important project, building a new secondary school for 2,500 local children, and in a difficult economic climate it's vital that all spending is fully accountable and as low as is reasonably possible. The education authority expect the most effective teaching establishment for the most efficient cost; Gwen wants to have the best tools to hand to ensure that this happens, so she'll be using Microsoft Project to help manage the expenditure.

Identifying costs

To start with, Gwen enters all the cost information into Project, making sure that she's covered everything - people, resources, equipment, at all stages of the project. She then needs to assess whether the totals are within the goals set for maximum expenditure. Hopefully, they'll fall within budget, but it's quite possible, at this early stage, that that won't be the case.

In reviewing the costs to get the totals down, Gwen may be able to identify savings that can be made by losing unnecessary additions to the basic plan, or by using cheaper alternatives to expensive resources. Using Project's version comparison tool, she can even compare the current Project with a previous, successful example to get a better picture of what does or doesn't need to be spend. But she might also find that certain tasks in the project drive the whole forward, influencing start and finish times and having the power to extend or reduce expenditure.

These tasks form the 'critical path' from start to completion, and with Project, Gwen can see how adjustments to just those few critical processes will affect the cost of the entire project.

As the project is ongoing

Microsoft Project allows Gwen to stay in control of costs whilst the operation is underway. After all, many projects accumulate extra expenditure as they go along - not necessarily a sign of poor planning, but simply because not all possible costs are predictable, however thorough preparations may have been. Should new costs arise along the way, it's easy for Gwen to see within Project just what impact these will have overall.

For example, if a cost or delay emerges within the critical path, it will very likely result in more disruption further down the line. Being able to anticipate this gives Gwen the power to pre-empt it, to deal with the accompanying problems before they arise, and to stay in better control of the project. On the other hand, if disruption is left unmanaged, costs and delays along the critical path can easily snowball.

Project also makes it easy for Gwen to review and analyse the progress of her project. At the touch of a button, she can see whether each task is conforming to schedule, and what impact this is likely to have on other tasks - or alternatively, the software can highlight any slack in the schedule which can be taken up.

If she's considering making changes with the intention of keeping costs down, then Project can show her the consequences of any adjustments without her having to make them. She can also get a clearer picture of how efficiently her project is performing through an earned value analysis - assessing how much of the budget should have been spent given the amount of work done to date and the baseline costs. All of these tools give Gwen a vital insight into where the money is being spent, and if it could be spent more effectively, if any is being wasted or misused.

And monitoring spending and potential wastage is absolutely critical, for Gwen and for anyone dealing with a major project. Funding will always be limited, so every step that can be taken to keep costs under control is a welcome and necessary development. Any project manager could benefit from the tools that Microsoft Project provides for cost control, and indeed from a short training course to help get the most from those tools. And there's never a bad time to start taking greater control of your organisation's spending.