(3.0.P1)

The program costs are estimated at the same time the program schedule and Program Charter are created in Step 1.0 and 2.0. The estimated cost is used to create the initial program budget. The budget represents the amount of money available to spend on the program. Depending on your organization and how you do your accounting, the budget could contain only the external costs of the program (contractors, hardware, software, material, etc.). Some organizations also include the costs of internal labor in the budget. These organizations typically have some type of chargeback process to allocate the internal costs back to the program.

It is important to get an initial grasp of the estimated costs of the program. However, by their nature, programs are large and it is not always easy to anticipate all of the factors that may impact costs over the life of the program. For example, if your program is scheduled to last for five years, it may be difficult to know exactly what the program will look like 2, 4 or 5 years in the future. Nevertheless, the costs must be estimated. This will require a combination of estimating techniques and estimating assumptions. You should also identify the risks associated with your estimate.

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