Objectives

To provide participants with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to weight benefits against cost in making a wide range of project decisions, from prioritizing projects to selecting vendors to deciding how to configure a project solution. Participants will be exposed to the full range of benefit-cost methodologies, including both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Instruction

Method: Lecture, computer simulation, case studies, class exercises.

Materials: Course workbook. Class exercises and case studies are used extensively. Exercises and case studies include: "Selecting a New Information System," "Killing the Project that Would Not Die," "Assessing the Value of the Asianda Fertilizer Plant," "Choosing a Project," "Buying a Computer," "Computing Discounted Cash Flows," and "Measuring Cost Savings." In addition, students create their own benefit-cost problems which they model and resolve using Expert Choice software, which employs the analytical hierarchy process (AHP).

PMBOK Knowledge Areas

• Integration Management
• Scope Management
• Time Management
• Cost Management
• Risk Management

Topics Covered

• Benefit-cost analysis principles: assessing benefits, assessing costs
• Quantitative versus qualitative approaches to benefit-cost analysis
• Basic techniques, including: benefit-cost ratios, scoring sheets, gap analysis, Murder Boards, Poor Man's hierarchy, Buss's ranking schema
• The role of estimation in effective benefit-cost analysis, including projecting trends, employing reliable and valid data and models
• Benefit-cost analysis on internal and non-profit projects: using cost avoidance as a measure of benefits
• Computing discounted revenue and cost streams
• Pitfalls of benefit-cost analysis
• Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a significant benefit-cost analysis tool (Students will be supplied with a free working version of Expert Choice)
• Financial concepts important in benefit-cost analysis: opportunity cost, present value, internal rate of return, payback period, and sunk cost.
• Applying Monte Carlo simulation principles to develop more realistic benefit-cost analysis projections.

Course Length

This course comes in varying lengths depending upon the needs of your organization. Project Management Professionals (PMPs) are eligible to earn Professional Development Units (PDUs) for taking this course.

Arrange a Course

Contact UMT Corporate Training at (703) 516-0035 or training@umtweb.edu to schedule a course.