150 Chapter Four Project Management F Do some research on the reasons for the budget overage. The budget might have been set unrealistically (by you or someone else) at the beginning; if you look into the overages as they occur and you track them carefully, you'll be able to bet- ter anticipate problems in the future. F Be clear to your boss (and other stakeholders involved in the money side of the project) that there is a problem. A 5% variance on dollars can be trivial or critical (depending on the size of the budget), but most bosses will want to know about that discrepancy. F Adjust the project deliverables. Many projects are redefined halfway through: if your initial project goal called for all 14 satellite offices to get individual servers, and installation costs on the first 5 sent you over budget already, it is time to reevaluate your project goals. All the offices may get their own servers, but that may not happen until next year, instead of this year. F Look for "hidden money." Your project budget may have a contingency budget or your boss may have money from another project you can use. Avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you'll save money later in the project and in the end you'll be okay. 4.9 Useful Project Management Techniques As you gain experience for managing projects, you'll find, discover, and adapt a variety of techniques that you find helpful. Each project manager does this, and many have adopted styles and techniques unconsciously, barely aware of how effective they are. Project Teams Formalizing a group of individuals working loosely together toward a common goal can have tremendous benefits. Calling these people a special group or telling them they are all now members of a "project team" or a "task force" can solidify a project's goals and make progress toward those goals much more evident. When people feel identified with a project, they are much more likely to feel responsible and accountable for it. The size and complexity of your project will determine how formal you need to be with assigning teams: getting three new sales people up and running with laptops, for example, may take a day or two and involvement from several different people in IT at various times, but the task probably doesn't need a formal team. Moving your company's offices, however, is a classic project that benefits from for- malizing a team. Each member has specific tasks, and everyone can have a clear idea of what the goal is and how they can help with that goal.