Going over budget on a project is not fun. As a project manager, it’s important to have contingencies in place to mitigate against any budget overages. At the outset of a project, you want to avoid getting too granular on your figures for tasks and estimates. Instead, provide a percentage about your level of certainty about your estimates. For example, you might say that quality assurance will be X percent of development. But you also need to make sure that you’re not relying solely on other team members for your figures. Team members can make mistakes in their estimates, so you need to take that into consideration. In that case, and if there are many unknowns about the project, it’s best to make sure your percentages have enough contingency built in. It’s easy to get burned by overestimating your percentages. Staying under budget as a project manager is an important part of your duties. Use a percentage system to assess your level of certainty around unknowns in the project, and provide enough contingency in your figures to keep from getting burned by inaccurate estimates. --- Featuring Suze Haworth Learn more: https://thedpm.com/