工程造價專業(yè)外文文獻(xiàn)翻譯(中英文對照

1、外文文獻(xiàn)：Project Cost Control: The Way it WorksBy R. Max WidemanIn a recent consulting assignment we realized that there was some lack of understanding of the whole system of project cost control, how it is setup and applied. So we decided to write up a description of how it works. Project cost control

2、is not that difficult to follow in theory.First you establish a set of reference baselines. Then, as work progresses, you monitor the work, analyze the findings, forecast the end results and compare those with the reference baselines. If the end results are not satisfactory then you make adjustments

3、 as necessary to the work in progress, and repeat the cycle at suitable intervals. If the end results get really out of line with the baseline plan, you may have to change the plan. More likely, there will be (or have been) scope changes that change the reference baselines which means that every tim

4、e that happens you have to change the baseline plan anyway.But project cost control is a lot more difficult to do in practice, as is evidenced by the number of projects that fail to contain costs. It also involves a significant amount of work, as we shall see, and we might as well start at the begin

5、ning. So let us follow the thread of project cost control through the entire project life span.And, while we are at it, we will take the opportunity to point out the proper places for several significant documents. These include the Business Case, the Request for (a capital) Appropriation (for execu

6、tion), Work Packages and the Work Breakdown Structure, the Project Charter (or Brief), the Project Budget or Cost Plan, Earned Value and the Cost Baseline. All of these contribute to the organization's ability to effectively control project costs.FootnoteI am indebted to my friend Quentin Flemin

7、g, the guru of Earned Value, for checking and correcting my work on this topic.The Business Case and Application for (execution) FundingIt is important to note that project cost control is most effective when the executive management responsible has a good understanding of how projects should unfold

8、 through the project life span. This means that they exercise their responsibilities at the key decision points between the major phases. They must also recognize the importance of project risk management for identifying and planning to head off at least the most obvious potential risk events.In the

9、 project's Concept Phase Every project starts with someone identifying an opportunity or need. That is usually someone of importance or influence, if the project is to proceed, and that person often becomes the project's sponsor. To determine the suitability of the potential project, most or

10、ganizations call for the preparation of a "Business Case" and its "Order of Magnitude" cost to justify the value of the project so that itcan be compared with all the other competing projects. This effort is conducted in the Concept Phase of the project and is done as a part of t

11、he organization's management of the entire project portfolio. The cost of the work of preparing the Business Case is usually covered by corporate management overhead, but it may be carried forward as an accounting cost to the eventual project. No doubt because this will provide a tax benefit to

12、the organization. The problem is, how do you then account for all the projects that are not so carried forward? If the Business case has sufficient merit, approval will be given to proceed to a Development and Definition phase.In the project's Development or Definition Phase The objective of the

13、 Development Phase is to establish a good understanding of the work involved to produce the required product, estimate the cost and seek capital funding for the actual execution of the project. In a formalized setting, especially where big projects are involved, this application for funding is often

14、 referred to as a Request for (a capital) Appropriation (RFA) or Capital Appropriation Request (CAR). This requires the collection of more detailed requirements and data to establish what work needsto be done to produce the required product or "deliverable". From this information, a plan i

15、s prepared in sufficient detail to give adequate confidence in a dollar figure to be included in the request. In a less formalized setting, everyone just tries to muddle through.Work Packages and the WBSThe Project Management Plan, Project Brief or Project Charter If the deliverable consists of a nu

16、mber of different elements, these are identified and assembled into Work Packages (WPs) and presented in the form of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Each WP involves a set of activities, the "work" that is planned and scheduled as a part of the Project Management Plan. Note, however, tha

17、t the planning will still be at a relatively high level,and more detailed planning will be necessary during execution if the project is given the go ahead. This Project Management Plan, by the way, should become the "bible" for the execution phase of the project and is sometimes referred t

18、o as the "Project Brief" or the "Project Charter". The cost of doing the various activities is then estimated and these estimated costs are aggregated to determine the estimated cost of the WP. This approach is known as "detailed estimating" or "bottom up estimatin

19、g". There are other approaches to estimating that we'll come to in a minute. Either way, the result is an estimated cost of the total work of the project.Note: that project risk management planning is an important part of this exercise. This should examine the project's assumptions and

20、environmental conditions to identify any weaknesses in the plan thus far, and identify those potential risk events that warrant attention for mitigation. This might take the form of specific contingency planning, and/or the setting aside of prudent funding reserves.Request for capitalConverting the

21、estimate However, an estimate of the work alone is not sufficient for a capital request. To arrive at a capital request some conversion is necessary, for example, by adding prudent allowances such asoverheads, a contingency allowance to cover normal project risks and management reserves to cover unk

22、nowns and possible scope changes. In addition, it may be necessary to convert the estimating data into a financial accounting formatthat satisfies the corporate or sponsor's format for purposes of comparison with other projects and consequent funding approval. In practice all the data for the ty

23、pe of "bottom up" approach just described may not be available.In this case alternative estimating approaches are adopted that provide various degrees of reliability in a "top down" fashion. For example:Order of Magnitude estimate a "ball park" estimate, usually reserve

24、d for the concept phase only Analogous estimate an estimate based on previous similar projectsParametric estimate an estimate based on statistical relationships in historical data Whichever approach is adopted, hopefully the sum thus arrived at will be approved in full and proves to be satisfactory!

25、 This is the trigger to start the Execution Phase of the projectNote: Some managements will approve some lesser sum in the mistaken belief that this will help everyone to "sharpen their pencils" and "work smarter" for the benefit of the organization. This is a mistaken belief bec

26、ause management has failed to understand the nature of uncertainty and risk in project work. Consequently, the effect is more likely to result in "corner cutting" with an adverse effect on product quality, or reduced product scope or functionality. This often leads to a "game" in

27、 which estimates are inflated so that management can adjust them downwards. But to be fair, management is also well aware that if money is over allocated, it will get spent anyway. The smart thing for managements to do is to set aside contingent reserve funds, varying with the riskiness of the proje

28、ct, and keep that money under careful control.Ownership of approved capital If senior management approves the RFA as presented, the sum in question becomes the responsibility of the designated project sponsor. However, if the approved capital request includes allowances such as a "Management Re

29、serve", this may or may not be passed on to the project's sponsor, depending on the policies of the organization. For the approved RFA, the project sponsor will, in turn, further delegate expenditure authority to the project's project manager and will likely not include any of the allow

30、ances. An exception might be the contingency allowances to cover the normal variations in work performance. The net sum thus arrived at constitutes the project manager's Approved Project Budget.Note: If management does not approve the RFA, you should not consider this a project failure. Either t

31、he goals, objectives, justification and planning need rethinking to increase the value of the project's deliverables, or senior management simply has higher priorities elsewhere for the available resources and funding.The Project's Execution PhaseThe project manager's Project Budget resp

32、onsibility Once this Approved Project Budget is released to the project manager, a reverse process must take place to convert it into a working control document. That is, the money available must be divided amongst the various WBS WPs that, by the way, have probably by now been upgraded! This result

33、s in a project execution Control Budget or Project Baseline Budget, or simply, the Project Budget. In some areas of project management application it is referred to as a Project Cost Plan. On a large project where different corporate production divisions are involved, there may be a further intermed

34、iate step of creating "Control Accounts" for the separate divisions, so that each division subdivides their allocated money into their own WBS WPs. Observe that, since the total Project Budget received formal approval from Executive Management, you, as project manager, must likewise seek a

35、nd obtain from Executive Management, via the project's sponsor, formal approval for any changes to the total project budget. Often this is only justified and accepted on the basis of a requested Product Scope Change. In such a case the project's sponsor will either draw down on the managemen

36、t reserve in his or her possession, or submit a supplementary RFA to upper management. Now that we have the Project Budget money allocated to Work Packages we can further distribute it amongst the various activities of each WP so that we know how much money we have as a "Baseline" cost for

37、 each activity. This provides us with the base of reference for the cost control function. Of course, depending on the circumstances the same thing may be done at the WP level but the ability to control is then at a higher and coarser level.Use of the Earned Value technique If we have the necessary

38、details another control tool that we can adopt for monitoring ongoing work is the "Earned Value" (EV) technique. This is a considerable art and science that you must learn about from texts dedicated to the subject. But essentially, you take the costs of the schedule activities and plot the

39、m as a cumulative total on the appropriate time base. Again you can do this at the activity level, WP level or the whole project level. The lower the level the more control information you have available but the more work you get involved in.The Cost Baseline This planned reference S-curve is someti

40、mes referred to as the "Cost Baseline", typically in EVparlance. That is, it is the "Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled" (BCWS), or more simply the "Planned Value" (PV). Observe that you need to modify this Cost Baseline every time there is an approved scope change that ha

41、s cost and/or schedule implications and consequently changes the project's Approved Project Budget. Now, as the work progresses, you can plot the "Actual Cost of Work Performed" (ACWP or simply "Actual Cost" - AC). You can plot other things as well, see diagram referred to ab

42、ove, and if you don't like what you see then you need to take "Corrective Action".CommentaryThis whole process is a cyclic, situational operation and is probably the source of the term "cycle" in the popularly misnamed "project life cycle".As an aside, the Earned Va

43、lue pundits offer various other techniques within the EV process designed to aid in forecasting the final result, that is, the "Estimate At Completion" (EAC). EAC is what you should really be interested in because it is the only constant in a moving project. Therefore, these extended EV te

44、chniques must be considered in the same realm of accuracy as top-down estimating. They are useful, but only if you recognize the limitations and know what you are doing!But, as we said at the beginning, it is a lot more difficult to do in practice and involves a significant amount of work. But, let&

45、#39;s face it, that's what project managers are hired for, right?中文譯文：項目成本控制：它的工作方式R.馬克斯懷德曼我們在最近的咨詢?nèi)蝿?wù)中意識到，對于整個項目成本控制體系是如何設(shè)置和應(yīng)用的這個問題，我們?nèi)杂幸恍┤狈α私狻Ｒ虼耍覀儧Q定寫出它是如何工作的說明。從理論上講，項目成本控制并不難。首先，建立一套參考基準(zhǔn)。然后，按照工作的進(jìn)展，監(jiān)察工作，分析結(jié)果顯示，預(yù)測最終結(jié)果并與參考基線作比較。如果最終結(jié)果不令人滿意，那么你要對正在進(jìn)行中的必要的工作進(jìn)行調(diào)整，并在適當(dāng)?shù)臅r間間隔內(nèi)重復(fù)循環(huán)。如果最終結(jié)果已經(jīng)與基線計劃脫節(jié)，你可能

46、不得不改變計劃。更有可能的是，將會有（或已經(jīng)）變化的范圍改變參考基線，這意味著，每一次范圍發(fā)生變化，無論如何你都必須改變基線計劃。但是通過項目數(shù)量未能控制成本，證明在實踐中，項目成本控制是很難真正實施的。我們將看到，它還涉及到相當(dāng)數(shù)量的工作，因此，我們不妨在一開始就啟動它，通過整個項目的線程壽命來進(jìn)行工程造價控制。同時，我們將借此機(jī)會指出幾個顯著的適當(dāng)?shù)牡胤轿募?。這些措施包括商業(yè)案例，（資本）請求撥款（執(zhí)行），工作包和工作分解結(jié)構(gòu)，項目章程（或摘要），項目預(yù)算或成本計劃，獲得的價值和成本基準(zhǔn)。所有這些都有助于提高該組織有效地控制項目成本的能力。腳注我要感謝我的朋友，大師昆汀弗萊明，檢查和糾正我

47、關(guān)于這一主題的工作。（執(zhí)行）資助的商業(yè)案例和應(yīng)用重要的是要注意，當(dāng)負(fù)責(zé)的執(zhí)行管理者對項目應(yīng)如何通過項目壽命展開這個問題有很好的理解時，項目的成本控制是最有效的。這意味著，他們在主要階段的關(guān)鍵決策點之間行使自己的責(zé)任。他們還必須認(rèn)識到，至少對最明顯的潛在危險事件，用于查明和規(guī)劃掌管關(guān)閉的項目風(fēng)險管理的的重要性。在項目的概念階段每一個項目都由確定的機(jī)會或需要的人開始。通常是有一定重要性或影響力的人，如果該項目繼續(xù)進(jìn)行，這個人往往成為該項目的贊助者。為了確定潛在項目的適用性，大多數(shù)組織呼吁編制“商業(yè)案例”和“量級”的成本，以證明該項目的價值，使其可以與所有其他項目競爭。企業(yè)的商業(yè)案例的準(zhǔn)備工作成本通

48、常包括管理開銷，但它可結(jié)轉(zhuǎn)為最終項目的會計成本。毫無疑問，因為這將為該組織提供一個稅務(wù)利益。問題是，你如何再占有所有不結(jié)轉(zhuǎn)項目？如果有足夠的商業(yè)案例的優(yōu)點，贊助者將繼續(xù)發(fā)展和定義階段。在該項目的發(fā)展或定義階段在開發(fā)階段的目標(biāo)是建立一種涉及到生產(chǎn)所需的產(chǎn)品，估計成本，并為該項目的實際執(zhí)行尋求資本資金的良好的工作的認(rèn)識。在正式的設(shè)置，尤其是在涉及大項目中，這個撥款申請通常簡稱為（大寫）（RFA）撥款或資本撥款請求（CAR）。這需要更詳細(xì)的要求和數(shù)據(jù)的收集，建立什么工作需要來完成生產(chǎn)所需的產(chǎn)品或“交付”。從這個信息來看，一個準(zhǔn)備足夠的細(xì)節(jié)計劃在一美元的數(shù)字請求上給予足夠的信心。在一個不太正式的設(shè)置中

49、，每個人都只是試圖蒙混過關(guān)工作包和WBS項目管理計劃，項目簡介或項目憲章如果可交付的成果由一些不同元素組成，這些都是確定和組裝工作包（WPS），并在工作分解結(jié)構(gòu)（WBS）的形式提交。每個的WP涉及的一系列活動，計劃和計劃的一部分作為“工作” 項目管理計劃。但是請注意，如果該項目在執(zhí)行過程中前進(jìn)，將該規(guī)劃水平變得更高，更詳細(xì)，將是必要的。該項目管理計劃的方式，應(yīng)該成為該項目“圣經(jīng)”的執(zhí)行階段，同時它有時被稱為“項目簡介”或“項目憲章”。然后估計各種活動的成本，這些估計費用匯總以確定的WP的估計成本。這種方法作為“詳細(xì)估算”或“自下而上估算”而為人知曉。還有其他的方法來估算，我們將在一分鐘內(nèi)到達(dá)。

50、無論哪種方式，結(jié)果都是該項目的總工作的估計費用。注：該項目的風(fēng)險管理規(guī)劃，是這次演習(xí)的一個重要組成部分。這應(yīng)該檢查該項目的假設(shè)和環(huán)境條件，以確定該計劃中的任何弱點，到目前為止，并找出值得注意緩解這些潛在的風(fēng)險事件。這可能采取具體的應(yīng)急計劃的形式和/或預(yù)審慎的資金儲備。資本要求轉(zhuǎn)換的估計然而，單獨的工作的一個估計是沒有足夠資本要求的。為到達(dá)一定的資本要求，一些轉(zhuǎn)換是必要的，例如，通過加入審慎津貼如開銷，一個應(yīng)急的津貼，以彌補包括未知和可能的范圍變化的正常的項目風(fēng)險和管理儲備。此外，財務(wù)會計格式轉(zhuǎn)換成估算數(shù)據(jù)可能是必要的，以滿足有目的的企業(yè)或贊助商的形式與其他項目比較和隨之而來的撥款。剛才所描述的方法中，所有的數(shù)據(jù)類型為“自下而上”，在實踐中可能無法使用。在這種情況下，替代的估算方法是在時尚中通過提供不同程度的“自上而下”的可靠性。例如：訂購數(shù)量級的估計 - “球公園”估計，通常只為概念預(yù)留類似的估計 - 根據(jù)以前類似項目的預(yù)算參數(shù)估計 -基于對歷史數(shù)據(jù)的統(tǒng)計關(guān)系估計無論采用哪種方法，這種希望總和能被全面批準(zhǔn)和證明是令人