Contributing effectively to Strategic Planning

✓ Budgeting and Cost analysis

✓ Cost concepts and terminology

✓ Different costs for different purposes

✓ Fixed Vs Variable costs: the Cost-Volume-Profit analysis model

✓ Contribution Margin analysis

✓ Manufacturing vs. non-manufacturing costs

✓ Period Vs. Product costs: inventory evaluation and control

 

Linking Budgeting and Forecasting into the Business

' Strategy Traditional vs. Advanced Techniques in Cost-control

✓ Under-costing and over-costing: the consequences for profitability

✓ How to refine a costing system?

✓ Indirect (OH) Vs. Direct costs: Traditional Cost Allocations systems Vs. Activity-Based Costing (ABC)

✓ Cost hierarchy & Cost drivers

✓ Linking resources, activities and management

✓ Introducing Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) and Management (ABM)

Preparing Rolling Forecasts

✓ Role of forecasts and the link to strategy

✓ Comparing and contrasting budgets and forecasts

✓ Identifying key business drivers

✓ The rolling forecast process

✓ Forecasting methods

Applying best practice' risk management:

✓ Role of risk management in corporate governance

✓ Finance' role in supporting risk management

✓ Understand Project Risk Strategies

. ✓ How to Identify and analyse risks?

✓ Contingency Reserve

✓ PERT, Probability and Standard Deviation Formulae

✓ Network Activity Risk Profiles

✓ Risk Control “Practical Application”.

Managing Project Estimates

✓ Schedule Variances & Cost Variances

✓ Trend Analysis Techniques.

✓ Cost Variance

Forecasting and analysis: Tips and tricks.

✓ Design Cost Recovery plan.

✓ Cost Cutting Techniques.

Beyond the Budgets: Balanced scorecards and Six-sigma

✓ Broadening performance measurement systems

✓ Beyond budgeting: integrating financial and non-financial issues

✓ Introducing the Balanced Scorecard

✓ Introducing the Strategy maps

✓ Comparison of Unbalanced with Balanced Schedules.

✓ How to Measure Planned Progress on Schedule?

✓ Understand and manage Variable Conditions.

Applying Value Engineering in Projects:

✓ What is Value? What is Value Engineering? Why is it important?

✓ Objectives and Impact of Value Engineering

✓ What do cost-control and value engineering have in common?

✓ How and when is Value Engineering applied?

✓ Project stakeholder’s analysis and management

✓ Understanding teamwork and cross-functional Project Teams and team player styles

✓ Introduction to project scope ✓ Value techniques

✓ The Total Value Management Concept

✓ VE phase relationships – Value management in design

✓ Types and Classes of Value 

The Function Analysis Phase - Expressing Project Functional Needs and Constraints:

✓ Overview of Different Value Engineering Phases / Job Plan

✓ The Information Phase –steps and procedures

✓ The need for Function Analysis in projects

✓ Developing FAST Diagrams to identify critical project components and perform project value analysis

✓ Defining project constraints – relationships and trade-offs

✓ Aspects of Cost Estimating

The Creative and Evaluation Phases:

✓ Overview of the creative Phase.

✓ Creativity and Creative thinking within the project environment

✓ Creativity techniques as applied to optimize project value

✓ Blocks to creativity within the project team

✓ Reaching consensus and leveraging the power of project team collaboration

✓ Idea selection

✓ Evaluation methods and value criteria

✓ Development phase

✓ Techniques in problem-solving

✓ Life-cycle costing analysis

 

The Planning and Reporting Phases - Getting Results through Effective Communication:

✓ Effective Decision-making in a project environment

✓ Develop action plans and assign project roles and responsibilities

✓ Reporting VE findings to Senior Management and project stakeholders

✓ Integrating VE into the project process and Continuous Improvement and application at project initiation.