Potato Case

Review historical data Examining the cost histories of similar projects allows you to better estimate costs in a current project.

* Review cost totals of previous projects

Enter cost information You can establish cost estimates in Project by entering costs for resources or tasks, or both.

Click all of the following that apply:

* Set pay rates and fees for resources if you want Project to calculate cost totals for resources, assigned tasks, and the entire project. You need to enter rates andper-use fees for resources, such as people and equipment.

* Set fixed task costs for the use or purchase of resources, such as equipment. Project can then incorporate these fixed costs into the total cost of summary tasks and the entire project.

* Set material costs if you plan to use consumable resources, such as supplies. Project can calculate cost totals for these material resources from the base rates and quantities that you enter.

* Change the cost-rate tables on a resource assignment if you want to apply the resource rates that you entered in different rate tables.

Review planned costs After you enter costs for resources or tasks, or both, you can examine them to see if they need to be adjusted to meet your goal for costs.

Click all of the following that apply:

* View cost totals to verify the cost totals that Project calculated, based on cost information that you entered.

* View the best-case and worst-case scenarios by modeling costs if you want to analyze cost information and implement "what-if" scenarios.

* Export cost information to Microsoft Office Excel or another program to analyze cost details.

Optimize costs Before you establish your cost estimate as a budget for your project, you can make final adjustments to the cost totals to ensure that your estimates are as realistic as possible.

Click all of the following that apply:

* Replace a resource assignment with another resource who is less expensive or who you think can finish the job sooner.

* Remove a resource assignment when fewer people can complete the work without requiring extra time.

* Reduce rate-based costs by applying different pay rates for different types of work or by using a different grade of material.

* Reduce fixed costs by minimizing or eliminating set expenditures (such as travel costs) that aren't crucial to completing a task.

* Find costs that are over budget by applying a Cost

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