Documenting the Cost Baseline

The cost baseline, the first output of Cost Budgeting, is developed by adding up the costs of the WBS elements (remember, these costs were aggregated with the cost aggregation tool and technique) according to time periods. Most projects span some length of time and most organizations time the funding with the project. In other words, you won't get all the funds for the project at the beginning of the project; they'll likely be disbursed over time. The cost baseline provides the basis for measurement, over time, of the expected cash flows (or funding disbursements) against the requirements.