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  • Though using all three approaches in estimating the cost may take more time than using one of the three, I think one will be better informed on the cost estimates and thus minimising the chances of either underpricing or overpricing.

  • The approaches sometimes may depend the the work culture of an organization. However, for me i feel that the bottom up approach is best because it will be more accurate, true and is the best expected expenses required as it is submitted by the project implementers with their experience and knowing the ground reality.

  • How do we respond to the changing situation and market prices?

  • The parametric approach is only when unit cost can be calculated. However, in complex projects this might not be the best option.

  • Basing on the fact that estimating activity costs comes after listing activities and estimating the resources needed and knowing the actual cost per unit resource makes parametric a better option and the fact that bottom up gives a room for dishonesty that would led to overbudgeting and top down is most likely to give costs that does not match with the real cost which would present a risk of less budgeting.

  • I believe that you should use the top to bottom approach whenever possible because of its simplicity.

  • All have their merits, however the top down approach in my opinion would be the best approach because using experts has the advantage of not only being experts in theory but also in practice especially in our part of the world where you cannot be an expert without any field knowledge (that is a scholar).

  • I believe a combination of all three approaches works best whenever possible when estimating costs, especially in this climate of escalating costs on a daily basis. I like to use whatever experts I have available who can help keep these estimates realistic. In my organization, I rely on the wealth of volunteers I have who are experts in their respective organizations or careers, especially those who are consultants.

  • For me Bottom-up budgeting approach can be the realistic one because, when you involve people who will be spending money to come up with their activity budget and you as a PM consolidate those budgets to come up with one realistic budget. For sure this type of budgeting can be of much help and easy to go about.

  • In my opinion the it will be good to use all of the three approaches because doing so can eliminate the disadvantages of each approach. One can use the top down approach and generate cost estimates through consulting expert and doing some research. Then this can be further ascertained using the bottom up approach which is more realistic cost based. And the third approach can be used if there is any unit cost calculation involved.

  • Use the three methods ie;top down approach,bottom up approach and parametric approach.the three approaches complement each other.The top down approach involves experts,some research and managers,the bottom up approach involves individuals and realistic when they are honest and parametric is applicable when you have cost per unit.

  • I believe that you should use the parametric approach whenever possible because the approach help when you have a cost-per-unit that can be reliably calculated. In which multiplying that cost-per-unit times the number materials or number of times the activities occurrence or number Resource we need to use in a project.

  • In as much as parametric seems to be more efficient, I believe we should also consider leveraging and incorporating what the other two may offer to come up with a hybrid solution

  • Top up on my sid dounds more accurate because you will have to get the researcgers to give out the estimates to work on. Its creates honesty

  • The parametric approach is more realistic and may be cost effective in the long run

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  • In my opinion parametric is the best approach. Having unit per cost, you can multiply by number of units and get exact and accurate cost figure without over budgeting or underbudgeting the activities.

  • I would use a mix of all the three.
    Start with top-down to get overall budget idea
    Use bottom-up to know costs of field activities from employees
    Use parametric to know costs of items.

  • The combination of bottom up and top down is a good one. It allows those that will implement the project to participate in budget development and also helps to monitor every expenses included in the budget

  • I think the parametric is the best because it explain itself to any one who pick up a the document without help from anyone.

  • parametric estimate would be the foundation because it is based on actual project, top down and bottom up will be a guide only

    G
    1 Reply
  • I believe that you should use all the three approaches because they're all helpful but the best way to use mostly is parametric approach.

  • Considering the community oriented approach of my workplace, a bottom-up approach to estimating activity costs would be the most effective and fitting. This is because communities we work with would have input in planning and decision making processes — they are the experts, not us. Even though it may be more time consuming, it is worth having the involvement and input of community members.

  • For the fact that you have not done similar activities before, it is good to use the top down budgeting approach. In the case where you have an experienced staff at the bottom of your organogram, you can use the bottom-top approach. The parametric approach is appropriate when the organization has some learning from implementation of said projects and can record without any big difference, the exact cost of line items or close to the cost. Meanwhile, a combination of these approaches though will be time consuming, but could also help.

  • How effective will the parametric approach be, if you are new to the project scope, and product scope as an organization?

  • I believe that you should use the parametric approach whenever possible because we work on factual data and not estimates since not individual may know all costs accurately

  • In my opinion I believe that parametric is the better option out of the three. Because it is what I call easy math. The numbers need to always add up and not be to difficult.

  • I believe that you should use the bottom to up approach whenever possible because it's more realistic and if there's any cost change can be predicted from the person who spend the money more than the people who buy in only once

  • I believe that you should use the all the approaches whenever possible because each activity would required different approach to be well included in the budget.

  • Oct 13, 2020, 2:33 PM
    I agree with @JoeBlerk about parametric being the better option out of the three. In a third world setting, where the number of experts available to pitch in on a top down cost estimate are limited, and where dishonesty is rampant enough to effectively tamper with the bottom up approach, the parametric way seems to be the best logical option to take as long as unit prices are known, which is most often the case in our settin

  • The parametric method of budgeting is highly effective for me as it will give me exact costs per child in terms of accommodation and transportation, however, honestly the bottom-up approach is needed in areas such as providing meals (I really would need to speak with the Chefs to work through an estimate of the entire budget for meals for my camp project). Therefore I cannot say one is better than the other as I would need to apply both budget styles.

  • I agree with @JoeBlerk ,using parametric approch is simple and easy for budgeting sepecially for small budget estimation than the other two approaches.

  • would rather use all three approaches to have realistic estimates because almost each team member contributes hence it becomes easy during implementation because everyone is aware of the budget estimates and is easy to implement and use resources carefully according to the goals of the project and organization.

  • Hi everyone,

    what a pleasure learning with like-minded practitioners around the world. Thanks to Philanthropy University fraternity, their partners, volunteers, other stakeholders and fellow learners alike. A final thank you to internet and the computers which has enabled the unimaginable to happen.

  • I believe that you should use all three approaches whenever possible because they serve best by combining these three approaches.

  • To estimate the costs of my project, I would use the top-down method when planning with my team, then during implementation according to the realities on the ground, I would use the bottom-up approach to make adjustments and thus obtain more real costs.

  • In my opinion, the best ways could be combining the three.

  • The most common way to estimate costs is to make a list of items you need and add up their costs. Make sure you include all applicable costs, such as equipment and parts, materials and supplies, labor, financing, fees and licensing, transportation, and acquisition costs for land or facilities.

  • Cost estimation in project management is the process of forecasting the financial and other resources needed to complete a project within a defined scope. Cost estimation accounts for each element required for the project—from materials to labor—and calculates a total amount that determines a project's budget.

  • I prefer to use Parametric Estimating because, it is one of the most accurate techniques for determining a project’s duration and cost. And, parametric estimating is fairly easy to implement as you define the specifications of each unit of the deliverable. But the best way is to use all three Estimating activity

  • I think the parametric is the best because it explain itself to any one who pick up a the document without help from anyone.

  • in my opinion, the best way to estimate costs is by integrating the three approaches. By doing so, you get expert opinion and at the same time are able to make a comparison with people that are actually doing the implementation of activities.

  • The approach to use may be sometimes be context specific, but I believe the parametric is the best as it rules out all inadequacy.

  • I Believe that you should combine the three approaches, you will be serve best.

  • I agree with you that parametric is the best, but as the prices frequently fluctuates, I think it is critical to first do up-to-date market-based research about the prices to come up with more accurate budget.

    On the hand, as there are some points where parametric can't be practical, for instance, if there is a project of building poultry houses for number of local farmers at their residents, cost will vary according to the nature of their grounds.

    I'd like to recap that each one of the three can be proper way according to the situation.

  • Paramentric approach is good for a project because it gives accurate information of what will happen.

  • Parametric is usually easier as a consulting as we usually quote by man hours, or service units which are more transparent and easier to calculate

  • The three approaches should be combined in the costs estimates of a project. I particularly have preference for the bottom-up approach. This approach has the advantage of producing more realistic estimates simply because of the involvement of the individuals in the chain of activities.

  • I prefer using all approaches possibly. This is so to complement each other.

  • I PREFER TO USE THE TOP-DOWN APPROACH BECAUSE IT IS EASIER AND ALLOWS EVERY MEMBER OF THE TEAM TO HAVE A INPUT AND TRANSPARENCY CAN BE ACHIEVED.

  • In my opinion it is best to combine all 3 approaches as not all approaches would work on every expense you'd like to estimate.

  • I believe the three approaches are best to a particular situation at hand, based on the explanation from the module I can suggest that the parametric approach would be easily utilised when the project is an experienced one, where the data for activities expenses are already known or else multiplying with the wrong unit value Will give a wrong budget, therefore a re-occurring project scope where the manager is experienced with the event, parametric seems to be the best, but for a novel or inexperienced manager, top-down will be the most convenient maybe not the best but most workable, the bottom-down will find it most convenient with a small project scope where finance might not even Matter much, like a project goals involving, small participate as beneficiaries.

  • in my opinion ,the bottom up approach is more suiting though time consuming but its realistic because estimates are done by a person who is actually doing the job yet top down cost estimates may not be real

  • I will prefer to use the Bottom -Up method to estimate project cost. This is because it gives the other team members chance of participating in the cost estimation build up while also rendering their expertise in any areas of the activities relevant to their majors. Also, trust issues can be dealt with by applying parametric method to validate cost projections of some activities. Having the three methods synced together can make project cost estimates much perfectly estimated.

  • Parametric is the best and not complex,because you can multiple a material per unit in other to know how much it cost, if you are to purchase more material for the work.

  • Bottom up is the most useful tool for creating a budget as it will reflect the realities of the field

  • The parametric approach is the best approach, because it reduces possibility of budget inflation

  • I'm just starting as a PM with a project, and I'd find the parametric approach more difficult than the others due to the nature of our work. A combination of top-down and bottom-up would probably work best when working as a consultant with an organization. Ultimately, the organization would be the experts and would have budgets from prior events. It'd be best that I consult that and my counterpart at the organization to develop a budget. Parametric would be helpful with very specific parts of event planning in this case.

  • Depending on the project environment , as for Volatile environment I prefer Top-down method as the information required to develop accurate duration and costs estimates is not available while for stable environment viable to develop well-defined schedules & budget I prefer to use Bottom- Up approaches

  • I would combine all the methods, depending on the nature of the project.
    You might end up working with top down and parametric to have your project in order. Understanding the project needs and nature makes it easier to pick a method as all three work best.

  • I agree with @Joeblerk because the parametric approach works best in all three situations..

  • Throughout the cost estimation process, I may face difficulties of some activities which do not match with the approach that I have chosen to use. In that case, I will prefer to consider all the three approaches depending on which activity to estimate.

  • Personally, I believe the parametric budgeting methods works best - in general. This is because in using a standard unit cost, an organization is easily able to cover variable and fixed costs of project delivery, without having to spend too much adjusting their project scope, budget or timeline.

    However, our organization uses a combination of Top Down and Bottom Up Budgeting in developing our project budgets. Considering our donor requirements, we engage experts and our team to ensure that our budget lines make sense and will allow us to deliver the project scope on time!

  • For me parametric approach will be easier for me this is because will know the approximate costs and will just calculate how much i will use per the department.
    Like for example the project am dealing with is more on buying materials hence parametric will help a bigger part on budgeting

  • Someone kindly help with critical path

    D
    1 Reply
  • In my field, parametric cost estimates are the most commonly used. In building construction most countries have standard methods of measurements and market rates for different items of work which makes budgeting easier and quicker. It is also very easy to monitor costs and and variations in the scope can easier be costed.

  • This is the longest sequence on your Gantt chart. If your are using Microsoft project, check the network diagram, the critical path is usually indicated in red.

  • I believe that you should us the bottom to up approach whenever possible because it gives approximate near to accurate costs

  • Depending on the project environment , as for Volatile environment I prefer Top-down method as the information required to develop accurate duration and costs estimates is not available while for stable environment viable to develop well-defined schedules & budget I prefer to use Bottom- Up approaches

  • @ThaoTran said in Module 2 Discussion: Estimating Costs:

    This is the module 2 discussion. You may participate in this discussion after beginning module 2.

    In this module, you have learned about three approaches to estimating project costs: top-down, bottom-up, and parametric.

    In your opinion, what is the most effective way to generate cost estimates? Make sure to explain your response.

    Sample response: I believe that you should use the _______ approach whenever possible because _______________ .

    @ThaoTran said in Module 2 Discussion: Estimating Costs:

    This is the module 2 discussion. You may participate in this discussion after beginning module 2.

    In this module, you have learned about three approaches to estimating project costs: top-down, bottom-up, and parametric.

    In your opinion, what is the most effective way to generate cost estimates? Make sure to explain your response.

    Sample response: I believe that you should use the _______ approach whenever possible because _______________ .

    @ThaoTran said in Module 2 Discussion: Estimating Costs:

    This is the module 2 discussion. You may participate in this discussion after beginning module 2.

    In this module, you have learned about three approaches to estimating project costs: top-down, bottom-up, and parametric.

    In your opinion, what is the most effective way to generate cost estimates? Make sure to explain your response.

    Sample response: I believe that you should use the _______ approach whenever possible because _______________ .

    In my opinion, the parametric approach seems like the best way to go about cost estimates but as we can deduce from the top-down and bottom-up, budgets can be relative and a project manager should capitalize on the advantages each budgeting approach presents. For e.g. a huge project will definitely need advise from experts on the cost of peculiar activities as in the top down approach whereas the despite the dishonesty that may arise form the bottom-up approach, it is the duty of a project manager to have general knowledge of a bit everything to be able curb such instances. In addition to creating a tolerance of +/- 5% for every budget, all approaches to budgeting must be considered in order arrive at a relatively accurate budget when estimating costs.

  • My assumption is to combine both approaches which will work best when preparing budget.

  • Ce que j'ai aimé ce cours, il ma permis de bien mesurer le coût et le temps ou le calendrier du projet

  • I believe using all three approaches of estimating costs that are parametric, bottom up and top- down effectively will be the way of estimating costs.

  • For me Joshua, the most effective way to produce cost estimates is to do your budget planning well, to classify each activity with its expense. For example, if the project requires that we can employ two volunteers who will work for data analysis for 10 days, I know that they will have a salary of 1000 dollars. it is who will make the presentation and the final report in their will pay as much, those who will collect the data will have as much with a well-adjusted duration so as not to avoid project time overruns and to avoid unforeseen events

  • I believe that you should use a blended approach whenever possible because not one approach can give you the best budget. For different activities the scenario is usually different you may find a top up or bottom up is necessary for some while a parametric approach is more accurate for most items

  • I believe you should use parametric estimates because there are two advantages of using this estimate. First, if you know the cost of certain things before spending money it'll be easy to manage it and losses or averages can also be calculated. Second one is that you can take help by searching and visiting market to know the cost more accurately. In this way, it'll minimize the losses as well as people dishonesty.

  • I believe that you should use the bottom-up approach whenever possible because it will be the most accurate, as those who are actually incurring the expenses can most accurately reflect and forecast what the correcting budget will be. Any concerns about dishonest employee spending practices can be remedied by a thorough and detailed accountability system where employees are audited and provide receipts for their expenses.

  • A challenge to parametric is that not all costs and expenses are scalable. A cost of a pallet of wood is easy to estimate. But if you need to, for example, rent multiple buildings in multiple cities, it is not a uniform price per square foot, building, etc.

  • I believe that you should use the three methods approach whenever possible because parametric can only be used when set parameters are known, where some of the activities may be unknown that is where to use the Top down as this will involve experts and some managers. while the bottom up which is realistic if you find good and honest people as the implementers of the project.

  • I believe the parametric approach is the best because it isn't based on assumptions, one just needs to have a real-time cost-per-unit of each item or activity and multiply it by the quantity that's required.

  • Parametric is the simplest to use bcoz it's does require much but just to know how much cost of the item u need then multiply the cost of one item to the total number of items you want

  • Parametric is the simplest to use bcoz it's does require much but just to know how much cost of the item u need then multiply the cost of one item to the total number of items you want

  • I believe that the parametric approach is the best as long as the exact unit prices are obtained. It involves working with facts of figures which can also make approximation of miscellaneous easy.

  • I think i will used bottom-up approach since individual who are going to utilizes the money in engage in it and can help produce realistic cost estimate.

  • I believe that you should use the bottom-up approach as it produces more realistic cost estimates

  • I think i will used bottom-up approach since individual who are going to utilizes the money in engage in it and can help produce realistic cost estimate.

  • the method i will use is the parametric method of cost estimation. the parametric saves a lot of money because it gives close approximation

  • I believe that the most effective approach is the top down approach since it saves time. The estimates should however be as realistic as possible.

  • I have learnt that when you are creating a based activity ,you need to assign an estimated cost to the activity you are planning to do.

  • I have learnt a lot about generating cost estimates

  • I believe that you should use the analytic estimate also called bottom-up approach whenever possible because it is one the best and most accurate though time consuming. It breaks down the project into smaller parts and then create most accurate cost estimates for the variables.

  • I have personally used all approach but in cases that permit, the parametric approach has constantly proven more easier to work with.

    T
    1 Reply
  • The Bottom-up approach is typically more reliable and preferred for estimating because it assesses each work package from the bottom, working up to a deliverable and phase. It is practical to use when project schedules and budget from previous similar projects are available for reference. However, I will start with top down and use bottom up to confirm my readings

  • For me with some adjustment, I prefer to use top-down approach because most of the time senior managers have more knowledge and experience than lower level managers. Further, they do have more detailed understanding about the project, therefore, they know which costs shall be included and excluded than other but still they must consult with their subordinate managers to make it more effective.

  • yes, it may help to get more accurate cost, however, some items may not have a parameter

  • I believe that the parametric is the most effective way to gauge costs for more consistent things such as materials but there needs to be other kinds of estimate techniques as well because prices can change

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