Software for IT Budgeting and Planning? 37
MoneyConscious asks: "My company is still pretty small (100 people) and has never had any real structure around much of its operations. I manage the IT group and would like to get a handle on our yearly budget - expected expenditures for planned (and some unplanned) projects, plus regular maintenance and growth. I've taken a crack at a few different spreadsheets, but always seem to come up with something a few weeks later that requires a re-write of the budget (for instance, planned versus actual cost). We are a mix of Windows and Linux, so I have some flexibility in regards to budgeting software solutions (web-based SourceForge apps, Excel templates, and the like). What tools do you use to keep track of estimates and record actual expenditures to see how your budget process is doing?"
Microsoft Project Server (Score:5, Informative)
It's called Project Management (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft's Project can do this, but it isn't going to help much if you don't know anything about the project management models. You can even get a PM Certification [pmi.org] now, which is in demand these days. While Project is helpful, there still aren't publicly available estimators for IT/IS projects: it's still easier to estimate how much building a skyscraper will cost (cost per square foot) than implementing MS Exchange in terms of cost per client.
In our IS projects, we think in terms of cost per function point, interface, and sync item.
MS Project can export in and out of MS Excel, of course. There are even third-party add-ons for MS Project [criticaltools.com].
Typical MBA textbook on Project Management:
Grey & Larson [amazon.com]
Skills, understanding, imagination and 20% (Score:1, Informative)
It requires time, experience, imagination and most important listening skills (and do not forget the 20%
Oh yeah responding to the question: a nice set of spreadsheet is the only thing you really need software wise.
It's called Project Management-MBA (Score:1, Informative)
Openworkbench (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.openworkbench.org/ [openworkbench.org]