Estimating Training Project Costs

Don Clark’s Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition – Performance, Learning, Leadership, & Knowledge site has a lot of great information on it – from the basics of Instructional System Design (ISD) to topics like estimating costs for training programs. This site provides a variety of ISD related information with details that you may find helpful when building a budget. The Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design page presents design ratios and case studies that are helpful. Design ratios are invaluable in estimating costs associated with training projects. Keep in mind that design ratios are estimates and you can find a variety of them by different resources. One of the most comprehensive and accurate that I’ve seen is by Brian Chapman. His blog post, How long does it take to create training?, is available on a great Training & Development research site called Brandon-Hall.  (Also see the Brian's blog on the Chapman Alliance website. The Cost Estimator tool, on Clark's site, is a very basic tool that assists with estimating and tracking costs for training projects.

The Project Smart site presents the “Three Point Estimating” technique that offers a more accurate method of estimating costs using Best Case, Most Likely Case, and Worst Case estimates (Haughey, 2010). The formula is:

Estimate = ( B + 4 M + W ) / 6
• B = best case (1/6)
• M = most likely (4/6)
• W = worst case (1/6)

Another great nugget found on the Project Smart site is the Project Management Proverb: The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at ten different times. Estimating project costs is as much an art as it is a science. There are methodologies and tools that can guide the exercise of estimating project costs and building budgets, but there is usually that element of adding our “best guess”.

References

Chapman, B. (2007, December 5). Estimating development times. Message posted to http://brandon-hall.com/bryanchapman/?p=7

Haughey, D. (2010). Estimating project costs. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/estimating-project-costs.html

Phillips, J. (2010). Project cost management. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/project-cost-management.html

Piskurich, G.M. (2006). Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Copyright by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Used by permission via the Copyright Clearance Center Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/56607/CRS-CW-4744643/EDUC_6145_readings/6145_Wk5_Piskurich_39-47.pdf

Sommers, A. (2010). 12 tips for accurate project estimating. Retrieved from: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/12-tips-for-accurate-project-estimating.html