Imagine having a project with an unlimited budget. For sure, we've all had those days where checking the budget felt like a sigh of relief or a moment of panic. If a project was assigned to you with no budget constraints, would impact how you manage the project? and how? Saving Changes...
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I was in two projects with those characteristics. In fact, in one of them, the organization understood from the very beginning that the return of investment will be null. The reason of both will to gain a market position over the competence putting in place an innovative technology. In both the strategy worked. The point here was the market rhythms. I mean, while we had the money we had an opportunity window to address. Saving Changes...
For projects with minimal material costs (like software work), this is exactly what I recommend. Hold costs as a constant--the department budget is the same regardless of what projects you do--and simply focus on which projects will bring the most value. You save all the wasted time and effort on project budgeting, and the differences in project-specific costs average out over time. See the book "Beyond Budgeting" for alternative views on financial accounting. Saving Changes...
In any project there needs to be flexibility with at least one of the iron triangle legs, otherwise there's a high likelihood the project will run into major variances.
Unlimited budget can certainly help with expanding the potential approaches to deliver scope or resolve issues by getting the best possible material, equipment or talent or by enabling us to outsource or transfer work or risk, but it can't help if any of the remaining constraints cannot be realistically achieved.
For example, if I wanted to rebuild the back deck of my house which is about 300 square feet but I set an unrealistic constraint of having it completed in one hour, unlimited budget isn't going to make that possible.
One always feels happy with pockets full. Likewise a project manager, who is wealthy on his project budget.
There is a positive side but a downside too.
Unlimited budget might extend limits of available resources (be that people, equipment, technology or materials), but guaranteed effectiveness remains a BIG question.
At times, availability of resources beyond need triggers sluggishness in project team, drops prompt involvement of stakeholders and increases dependencies. Project manager in that case may find him or herself in a fix.
Having enough budget is always good but unlimited budget might ask for additional concerns and keen oversight by the project managers. Saving Changes...
There is an old PM joke that we can't be done with the project yet because we still have budget left. It speaks to the fact that if there is no incentive to be efficient, the scope will generally increase to whatever the budget allows like air expanding to fill the size of a container.
I too have worked in organizations where the budget goes to the org., not the discrete projects. In those cases a PM really needs to focus on setting and reaching milestones to keep the project moving, otherwise some people realize they can charge to a budget indefinitely claiming they're supporting a project without ever really accomplishing anything.
Sometimes people will still try to avoid the schedule accountability with open ended projects by using excuses like the actual solution isn't known yet so it's impossible to estimate completion dates. Then a PM still must find some way of setting targets and driving execution such as by assuming a total duration and dividing it into discrete parts like 3 major change iterations each 2 months long, or phases like investigation, design, build, test, etc. Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
I have never managed a project that had a blank check. However, it is frequent to be assigned to projects that have a ballpark budget which can be revisited and adjusted regularly. Technically, these projects do not incur in a budget overrun although the F&C Department could think otherwise.
One example of this was the Apollo program. The initial budget was expanded several times to enable the the first manned mission to the moon. Saving Changes...
Having unlimited funds can really spur innovation be able to invest heavily in research and development, diving deep into new ideas and technologies that could completely change the game. Imagine in a software project, being able to test out multiple prototypes at once to find out which one works best.
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Vladimir LiberzonR&D Director| Spider Project TeamMoscow, Russian Federation
Project plan defines project budget that is calculated together with the project schedule.
Any changes that increase project cost and require additional funding must be justified and approved.
So after project plan was approved project budget becomes limited. It can include contingency reserves but is never unlimited for the project management team. Saving Changes...
Sachin AggarwalCountry Sales Manager (IOT, Japan)| BlackBerry Tokyo, Japan
Interning question indeed. A project with infinite budget “might” not need a project manager. The whole concept of project management is centered around the fact that in a real world resources are constrained or limited. The project manager job is to efficiently navigate these limitations (trade offs are important) and achieve the project objectives. Among all the constraints, practically speaking “budget” is mostly on the top. So, infinite budget is likely to result in minimal overall constraints on the project. With no constraints, it is bye bye to the project management.
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