Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
If you're not building in some padding in your estimates, and then have contingency processes and funding also built into the plans for something this large, it is not well planned. Yes, COVID is a monkey wrench, but those monkey wrenches are things you plan for and factor those into your plans. Can you imagine a public works project, say like a wastewater treatment plant, where you started removing components because of increasing costs? "We don't need that extra settling pond." That would be a massive failure. You plan for these possibilities and you build in contingency plans to address these very concerns. Sure, you likely have to go back and make the ask for the contingency funds, but those should have been accounted for and that possibility identified out of the gate. The fact that we're talking 10% of projected cost of the entire project, I would have thought this overrun would have been contained in the original budget to begin with.
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If material costs have risen, then you need to up your budget AND maintain your contingency for construction.
If you eat up your contingency before beginning construction, then it is really poor planning. You are suggesting that it is poor planning, but they are following standard PM practices.