generate-budget

"Generates a detailed project budget (project-budget.xlsx) for Phase 2 —

Skill: generate-budget

Generates a detailed IT project budget during the planning phase (Phase 2). Reads the preliminary estimate (preliminary-estimate.xlsx) and resource plan (resource-plan.md), builds a line-item budget by phase and cost category. Output: project-budget.xlsx — one baseline scenario with a contingency reserve. Mode B: agent prepares draft, PM reviews.

Triggers

Russian: «сформируй бюджет проекта», «подготовь детальный бюджет», «сделай бюджет по фазам», «бюджет проекта», «детализируй бюджет» English: "generate project budget", "create budget", "project budget", "detailed budget", "budget by phase", "budget breakdown"

Language Detection

Determine the language of the user's request:

  • If the request is in Russian → use templates with the -ru suffix, respond in Russian
  • Otherwise → use templates with the -en suffix, respond in English

Input

DataRequiredSource
Preliminary estimateyes01-initiation/preliminary-estimate.xlsx
Resource planyes02-planning/resource-plan.md
Project charterno01-initiation/project-charter.md
Hard constraintsnoinput/constraints.md
Risk registerno01-initiation/risk-register.md — for reserve calibration

Output

FileProject pathFormat
project-budget.xlsx02-planning/.xlsx

File structure — 3 sheets (Summary, Budget Detail, Resource Detail) — defined in templates/project-budget-{lang}.md.

Instructions

Step 1 — Check Dependencies

Guard-rail — check request type. If the request contains: WBS, task decomposition, man-hours per task, work breakdown by assignee — respond: "generate-budget produces a line-item budget by phase and cost category, not a detailed WBS. For task decomposition use generate-project-plan — it builds a plan with tasks, timelines, and assignees. Once the plan is approved, generate-budget will calculate the financial side based on the resource plan." Do not start the workflow. Do not check for files.

Check for required files:

  1. 01-initiation/preliminary-estimate.xlsx
  2. 02-planning/resource-plan.md

If preliminary-estimate.xlsx is not found: Stop. Respond: "A preliminary estimate is required to generate the budget. Run the generate-estimate skill (task #4) — it will create preliminary-estimate.xlsx with baseline timeline and cost data."

If resource-plan.md is not found: Stop. Respond: "A resource plan is required to generate the budget. Run the generate-resource-plan skill (task #8) — it will create resource-plan.md with team composition, roles, and rates by phase."

If both files are found: proceed to Step 2.

Step 2 — Extract Data from Sources

From preliminary-estimate.xlsx (realistic scenario):

  • Duration of each phase (weeks or months)
  • Total costs by category (team, infrastructure, GTM)
  • Assumptions recorded in the estimate
  • Risk flags (if budget exceeds constraints)

From resource-plan.md:

  • Team composition: roles, FTE allocation per phase
  • Rates per role (if specified)
  • Total person-months per phase

From project-charter.md (if available):

  • Project name, PM, objectives
  • Whether GTM is in scope — determines whether Section C is populated

From risk-register.md (if available):

  • Number of HIGH-level risks → reserve calibration:
    • 0–2 HIGH risks: 10% reserve
    • 3–5 HIGH risks: 15% reserve
    • 6+ HIGH risks: 20% reserve, add PM warning

From constraints.md (if available):

  • Hard budget ceiling — record in assumptions.

Step 3 — Calculate Costs by Phase

Section A: Team (for each phase 1–6)

For each role:

Cost = FTE × Phase duration (months) × Rate ($/month)
  • FTE and duration: from resource-plan.md
  • Rates: from resource-plan.md → if not available, from preliminary-estimate.xlsx
  • If rates are unavailable at role level in both resource-plan.md and preliminary-estimate.xlsx, and the estimate contains only aggregated team costs by phase: use the aggregate as Section A total for that phase without role breakdown. Record in assumptions: "Role-level rates unavailable — aggregated data from estimate used. Update rates in resource-plan.md for improved accuracy." In Sheet 3, column "Rate" — mark as "from estimate (aggregated)".

Phase total (team) = Σ costs of all roles in the phase.

Section B: Infrastructure (for each phase)

Take data from preliminary-estimate.xlsx (realistic scenario, infrastructure row by phase). If data is unavailable — use default ranges from templates/project-budget-{lang}.md (§ Default Infrastructure).

Section C: Marketing/GTM (for each phase)

  • If GTM is in scope: take from preliminary-estimate.xlsx → Section C by phase.
  • If GTM is not in scope: set to zero, add note "GTM is not in scope".

Step 4 — Calculate Reserve and Totals

  1. Baseline budget = Σ (Team + Infrastructure + GTM) across all phases.
  2. Contingency Reserve:
    • Percentage: determined in Step 2 from the risk register (10%, 15%, or 20%).
    • If risk-register.md is unavailable: 10% default, add note "Risk register unavailable — standard 10% reserve applied".
    • Reserve = Baseline budget × %
  3. Grand Total = Baseline budget + Reserve.
  4. Constraint check: if Grand Total > Ceiling (from constraints.md):
    • Add risk flag to Summary: "Grand Total [$X] exceeds stated budget ceiling [$Y]. Recommended: revise scope, reduce team, or phase the project funding."
    • Do not adjust numbers to fit the ceiling.

Step 5 — Populate xlsx Sheets

Follow the schema in templates/project-budget-{lang}.md:

Sheet 1 — Summary:

  • Header: project, PM, date, version
  • Assumptions (minimum 3): calculation method, data sources, rates, GTM status, reserve %
  • Phase summary table: A (Team) + B (Infra) + C (GTM) = Total per phase
  • "Contingency Reserve" row: % and amount
  • Grand Total
  • Risk flag (if budget > ceiling)

Sheet 2 — Budget Detail:

  • Rows: phase → category → cost line item
  • Columns: Unit | Qty | Rate | Total
  • Example row: "Phase 2 | Team | Product Manager | person-month | 2 | $5,000 | $10,000"

Sheet 3 — Resource Detail:

  • Rows: role
  • Columns: Phase 1 | Phase 2 | ... | Phase 6 | Total (p-m) | Rate | Total ($)
  • Source: resource-plan.md

Step 6 — Create xlsx and Save

  1. Use the xlsx skill to create project-budget.xlsx following the template schema.
  2. Save to {project}/02-planning/project-budget.xlsx.
  3. Show in chat:
    • Confirmation: "Budget saved as project-budget.xlsx in 02-planning/."
    • Sheet 1 Summary as a markdown table.
    • List of assumptions.
    • Risk flags (if any).
    • Next step: "Budget is ready. Review rates and team composition. Once approved by PM, use generate-approval-letter to send it for stakeholder approval."
  4. Write to logs/log.md: date, skill, file created, grand total, reserve %.
  5. Update project-state.md: artifact project-budget.xlsx status → "draft".

Templates

FilePurpose
templates/project-budget-ru.mdxlsx artifact schema (RU)
templates/project-budget-en.mdxlsx artifact schema (EN)

Dependencies

Reads:

  • 01-initiation/preliminary-estimate.xlsx — realistic scenario (team, infra, GTM by phase)
  • 02-planning/resource-plan.md — roles, FTE, rates by phase
  • 01-initiation/project-charter.md — project name, PM, GTM scope status
  • input/constraints.md — budget ceiling (if any)
  • 01-initiation/risk-register.md — for reserve calibration

Passes data to:

  • monitor-progress (#19) — budget deviation tracking
  • generate-change-impact (#21) — scope change impact on budget
  • generate-plan-fact-report (#29) — plan vs. actual budget

Calls:

  • xlsx skill — to generate the .xlsx file

Constraints

  • Mode B: budget is a draft for PM review, not a final document
  • Single scenario (baseline) — scenario analysis is done in generate-estimate, not here
  • Does not update automatically on scope changes — re-run manually via generate-change-impact
  • Does not build a detailed WBS or calculate task-level effort — use generate-project-plan
  • Operates on one project per invocation
  • If preliminary-estimate.xlsx is unavailable — skill does not run; no fallback