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1.Make the estimate explain the project
A total cannot show whether the team has priced the same scope, sequence and delivery conditions. Keep the estimate connected to what will be built, who will deliver it and which assumptions could change the cost. Make unresolved scope visible before the number becomes a commitment.
Try this: Choose a major package and walk from scope to execution sequence, resources, risks and estimated cost. Record exclusions and unresolved assumptions, with an owner for each. Ask what new information would require the estimate to change.
2.Check what the takeoff might have missed
AJ Waters recounts an estimate that omitted the concrete quantities for a floor after a drawing had represented two floors together. The omission went unnoticed by the estimating team. His story is a useful prompt to check completeness and drawing interpretation, as well as arithmetic, and to make responsibility for the final estimate clear.
Try this: Have someone other than the takeoff author trace a critical quantity back to the drawings and scope. Check repeated floors or units, revision changes and package boundaries. Resolve omissions before approval and preserve the check with the estimate.
3.Keep the budget, actual cost and forecast distinct
An estimate describes a view of what the work may cost. The approved budget is the authorised control amount. Actual cost records what has been incurred under the reporting rules; the forecast expresses the current expectation of the final cost. Cash flow answers a timing question. Putting these under one vague cost label makes a review harder to use.
Try this: Take a package report and label the approved budget, actual cost, forecast and cash flow explicitly. Confirm the basis and period of each, then ask the cost lead to explain why the forecast differs from the budget and what has changed since the previous review.
4.Make package costs comparable before rolling them up
A program total needs a common organising structure. Package teams can retain useful detail, but their numbers must map to agreed scope and cost categories if the project is to explain the combined position. A shared spreadsheet shape alone does not establish that two teams mean the same thing.
Try this: Trace a sample of package costs into the program view. Check that the mapping has neither gaps nor double counts, identify who owns it and resolve ambiguous categories with the delivery teams. Keep the detail each package needs below the shared reporting level.
5.Price the controls work you expect to receive
Reporting, planning and cost-control obligations require effort. Asking for detailed deliverables without understanding the capacity and cost behind them leaves a gap between the tender promise and the operating model. Make those expectations understandable to the people who will perform the work.
Try this: At tender or mobilisation, connect each material controls deliverable to the people, effort, systems and price allowance supporting it. Resolve omissions through the project's authorised commercial process and explain the agreed requirements to the team doing the work.
6.Compare the resources you are buying with the work you can execute
An available crew is not automatically a productive crew. Compare the resource plan being purchased with when executable work needs each discipline. A mismatch can be hidden when the estimate, schedule and contractor resource plans are reviewed separately.
Try this: Overlay the time-phased estimate and committed resource plan for an upcoming work period. Investigate mismatches by discipline and work area, check access and readiness, then agree any changes to mobilisation or sequence with the responsible delivery and commercial leads.
7.Test savings against their downstream consequences
A cheaper or later release of drawings and materials can change the cost of the work that follows. Examine the whole delivery sequence before calling a local reduction a project saving. The receiving team should be part of the comparison.
Try this: For a proposed saving, ask construction and commissioning what it changes for their work. Compare the saving with possible resequencing, waiting, rework and support costs, and document the assumptions before approving the option.
8.Explain the exposure behind contingency
A contingency total is easier to challenge when the team can explain what uncertainty it covers and what evidence would change the allowance. Keep that explanation connected to the risk discussion and the project's rules for approving use or release.
Try this: Select a significant allowance and identify the exposure behind it, how it was assessed and what could resolve the uncertainty. When new evidence arrives, review the remaining exposure before recommending use, retention or release through the agreed approval process.
9.Make the forecast and risk review describe the same project
A cost model can look precise while its inputs describe different versions of the work. Scope changes, schedule movement and risk responses need a visible path into the cost outlook. A new analysis is useful only if the team understands the information it represents.
Try this: Before the next cost-risk review, confirm the versions and dates of the forecast, schedule and risk register. Walk through the significant changes together, resolve mismatched assumptions and record anything the analysis does not yet include.
10.Leave a cost history the next estimate can use
Project records can improve the next estimate only when someone can explain what the numbers represent. Preserve the scope, delivery conditions and reasons for movement alongside the cost, so a future team can judge whether a comparison is useful.
Try this: For a completed package, preserve the estimate, final cost, significant changes and delivery context. When reusing it, document differences in scope, timing, location and working conditions instead of copying the total into the next estimate.
This top 10's Bookshelf
Explore the sources behind this article and related reading from our Bookshelf.
Total Cost Management (TCM) Framework
AACE International · Referenced by PodBOK
Why it's on the shelfAACE describes a process framework connecting estimating, planning, scheduling, cost control, forecasting, performance measurement and risk management across the life cycle of projects and assets. Its emphasis on relationships between practices helps explain why specialist contributions must be integrated into a consistent project picture.
Further reading
What is project controls?
Association for Project Management · Referenced by PodBOK
Why it's on the shelfAPM explains how controls brings measurement, forecasting and corrective-action analysis into project management. Its overview also recognises that project size and complexity affect who performs this work. It supports distinguishing the analytical contribution from locally assigned decision authority.
Further reading
Keep exploring
Bibliography
Explore the conversations, publications and reading behind this top 10.
Podcast conversations
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Conversation with Akin Oni
Passages and links
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Make people, scope, risk, schedule and cost tell the same story
Akin Oni
Oni explains his project-evaluation sequence through people, scope, risk, schedule and cost. He also asks about the permissions, community and environmental context needed to deliver and operate the asset. His point is to understand what lies behind the financial case, not just its headline cost.
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Conversation with AJ Waters
Passages and links
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Own the part of the work you were responsible for
AJ Waters
Waters describes a concrete estimate that missed an entire floor after a drawing had represented two floors together. As lead estimator, he accepts responsibility for checking the work. He recommends explaining a mistake promptly, saying what was learned and bringing options for moving forward, rather than covering it up or transferring fault.
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Conversation with Jovita Stander
Passages and links
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Know which cost question each number answers
Jovita Stander
Discussing the knowledge a project controls leader needs, Stander distinguishes the budget, actual cost, forecast and cash flow. She presents these as basic questions a leader should understand while recognising that the cost discipline goes deeper.
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Conversation with Ahmed AbdelSalam
Passages and links
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Make separate project reports add up to a program view
Ahmed AbdelSalam
AbdelSalam describes joining a program where project managers used different templates and reporting methods. To understand the combined budget and contingency, he argues for a shared process and general work breakdown structure, while allowing teams to use only the parts relevant to their work.
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Conversation with Tarun Gohel
Passages and links
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Ask contractors to price the controls work you require
Tarun Gohel
Gohel treats project controls requirements as work that needs people, effort and funding. In his discussion of contract alignment, he says the client should ask contractors to price their project controls activities rather than assume that putting requirements in a document makes them cost-free.
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Conversation with Grant Stead
Passages and links
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Compare purchased resources with the executable estimate
Grant Stead
From turnaround planning, Stead describes comparing the time-phased estimate with the resource plan being committed through purchase orders. His example exposes a mismatch between the people being brought in and when the work actually needs them.
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Connect contingency to what the work might reveal
Grant Stead
In turnaround work, Stead describes looking at equipment-specific exposure and allowing for possible discoveries during inspection. When the equipment is opened, the team can reconsider the allowance against what it finds.
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Conversation with Geoff Ryan
Passages and links
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A saving in one discipline can create cost in another
Geoff Ryan
Ryan warns that optimising engineering and procurement around their own budgets and schedules can leave construction without the drawings or materials it needs. In the surrounding discussion, he calls for those sequences to align with the planned construction sequence.
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Conversation with Matt Mitchell
Passages and links
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Update the inputs before trusting the risk result
Matt Mitchell
When discussing Monte Carlo analysis, Mitchell identifies an updated budget or forecast, an updated schedule and an updated risk register as essential inputs. He then explains that his team chose a review cadence suited to its project, rather than treating one frequency as a rule for everyone.
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Conversation with Bruno Caldas
Passages and links
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Put reliable project history back into budgeting
Bruno Caldas
Caldas describes improving the reliability of project data and then using that history to support budgeting and rolling forecasts across a mixed portfolio. The useful connection is between maintaining trustworthy records now and having a stronger basis for future cost decisions.
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Publications and further reading
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Total Cost Management (TCM) Framework
AACE International · Further reading
Publication details
Living online framework; public publisher overview
Framework introduction; What Is the Total Cost Management Framework?; How the Total Cost Management Framework Integrates with Cost Engineering Practices.
This source is the publisher's overview; the complete framework is available separately.
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What is project controls?
Association for Project Management · Further reading
Publication details
Public topic overview; no numbered edition stated
Core elements; Who is responsible for project controls.
This source is APM's public topic overview, separate from its longer project-controls publication.
From the knowledge library
“Everybody missed it, but I take full responsibility as the lead estimator.”
Original card context
AJ Waters · ~31:50 · ep 027 with AJ Waters
PodBOK · The Major Project Podcast
https://www.themajorprojectpodcast.com/podbok/cost-management-tips · Updated 2026-11-01