Project Management

Comparing Management Reserves and Contingency [Infographic]

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A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts. Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.

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Categories: budget, contingency


Budget “overs” are a way of filling the gaps in your budgeting process and acting as a safety net for when things go wrong, right?

Not exactly.

Management reserves and contingency reserves are two very specific types of “extra” money in your project budget. They both have distinct roles to play in helping the business achieve the deliverables in line with the forecasted expenditure.

In this infographic I summarise the differences between these two different types of funding. Personally, I think contingency reserves are the more useful as they are tied to a specific event so they help improve risk management as well. What do you think?

You can read more about some of the ideas on this infographic in this article.


Posted on: September 06, 2018 04:58 PM | Permalink

Comments (13)

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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Elizabeth,

Good Comparison but I would add two more categories which I believe are important:

Level of Authority:Management Reserve if needed is authorized by the Sponsor or Senior Management while Contingency Reserve is within the authority of the Project Manager.

Allocation within a Project: Management Reserve is part of the Project Funding / Overall Budget while Contingency Reserve, unlike Management Reserve, is part of the Cost Baseline.

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Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD Senior Project Manager| Infosys Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Good information Elizabeth and also as usual a great visual display to make things readable and easily understood.

Rami added some key points.

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Tamer Zeyad Sadiq Assistant Cost Manager| Turner & Townsend Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia
Fantastic comparative!!!

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RAJESH K L Project Manager, PMP| Bharat Electronics, Bengaluru, India Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Thanks for sharing

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Drew Craig Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard Philadelphia, Pa, United States
Thanks, Elizabeth. I agree with Rami's additions above.

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Eduin Fernando Valdes Alvarado Project Manager| F y F Fabricamos Futuro Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia
Thanks for sharing

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Elizabeth Harrin Director| RebelsGuideToPM.com London, England, United Kingdom
Thanks, Rami - great suggestion

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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
You're welcome Elizabeth !

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Pench Batta Enterprise Lean Agile DevOps Coach /SAFe Program Consultant (SPC6)| Capgemini, Inc. Bentonville, Ar, United States
Excellent information, Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing!

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Mohammad Kashi PM I| SPG Teheran, Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Thanks Elizabeth and Rami

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Vincent Guerard Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Interesting way to present it. I have often seen a distinction between contingency reserve and risk reserve, the lastest between the two presented.
Thanks

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Janvier Ndayisaba Manager| Fuzzy International General Trading Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic Of
Thanks Elisabeth for sharing and Rami for addition of important information.

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Devaki R PMO| HSBC Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Great, thank you for sharing!

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