7.3 Determine Budget

Add up the activity costs into an approved, time-phased budget.

Planning / Cost · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map

Why it matters

The activity estimates alone do not say when money is needed, and a budget with no timing tells finance nothing useful about cash flow.

What done looks like

An approved cost baseline exists, showing planned spend against the schedule over time.

First time tip

Plot the budget as a curve against the schedule before you finalize it. A flat line rarely matches how spending actually happens over a project.

What you need (Inputs)

• Cost Management Plan
• Scope Baseline
  How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: committed backlog items and definition-of-done items (models/agile.py) — a committed backlog (status ready/in_progress/done) plus a written definition of done is what an agile team baselines scope against
• Cost Estimates
• Basis of Estimates
• Project Schedule
  How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: releases (driftless/models/agile.py:Release) — a release with a target date is the agile reading of a project schedule when there is no sprint or milestone to read one from
• Risk Register
• Agreements

How you do it (Tools & Techniques)

• Expert Judgment
• Cost Aggregation
• Data Analysis
• Historical Information Review
• Funding Limit Reconciliation
• Financing

What you get (Outputs)

• Cost Baseline
• Project Funding Requirements

Worked example

The activity estimates add up to $41,000, and spreading them across the schedule — demolition and paint in March, shelving in May when the supplier can deliver — is what tells the board it needs $18,000 available before April.

Common pitfalls

• Adding the estimates up but never spreading them across the schedule.
• Ignoring a funding limit until the month the money is not there.
• Baselining a budget the schedule has already moved past.

How driftless helps

• Cost Aggregation can be run here.
• Historical Information Review can be run here.
• Funding Limit Reconciliation can be run here.
• Financing can be run here.
• Cost Baseline can be created in the wizard.