Effectively Forecast Expenses and Resources

Many companies fail to implement their strategic goals due to ineffective planning. Sometimes it happens that strategy looks perfect, but certain steps on the road to success are missing. Moreover, the important projects overrun their budgets, leading to devastating consequences for the company’s operations. In this respect, to perform effective planning, a proper forecast of the expenses and resources for each project is crucial.

This forecast will help to evaluate all the potential risks that can affect the project implementation. A sound contingency plan is a key to the organization’s success, and it is recommended to include it in your main strategic plan. Roadmap Planner is the perfect tool for the formation of the unified document, introducing your strategic projects and their risk assessment at once.

Proper project risk management entails more than simply identification and analysis at the beginning of a project. It must be integrated into the project plan, consistently applied, and clearly communicated throughout the lifecycle of the project. Unfortunately, in most cases, a contingency plan either does not occur at all or is made as a basic check at the beginning of the project. As a consequence, potential risk factors of the project are not specified and project managers are not able to respond to new uncertainties during the project’s scope.

Any circumstances, including logistics, standards, laws, regulations, personnel, schedule, and cost issues can influence risk management activities. A good project manager has to take all these issues into account if he aims to meet the expectations of the owner of the project and its stakeholders. Hence, your strategic roadmap has to point out the stages where unexpected costs or additional resources in terms of labor or equipment might be required. Goals by KeepSolid will help you to integrate your contingency plan into your strategic roadmap easily and effectively.

All tasks within the project are to be done in time and in the most efficient way. Otherwise, a failure of the project is almost inevitable. To avoid this risk, several important steps have to be performed:

• Start from the preplanning stage – Assess all the resources you may need to implement the project, and form your strategic budget. Identify the role of the project in your organization and its potential impact on its strategic development. Place your new project within your strategic roadmap and mark all its main stages, specifying proper resources for their accomplishment.
• Constantly re-assess your project – Risk management should occur at every stage of the project and have a preventive nature. It means that the potential risks are to be determined prior to their occurrence, and the unexpected expenses and resources are to be allocated prior to the risk event.
• Place your contingency plan to your strategic roadmap – Simply create one more project in the document, and identify all the stages where potential risks are likely to occur. Set the necessary dependencies between different tasks within your contingency plan and other projects to easily examine the strategic roadmap to success. Establish the required resources and expenses to meet potential uncertainties, and discuss your contingency plan with senior management and other stakeholders.