Suppose you were asked to prepare a cost estimate for a project to purchase laptops for all faculty and staff at your college or university. Furthermore, you are asked to do this in three phases due to budgeting and time constraints. There are 3,000 faculty and staff and 200,000 students. The science department and laboratory are helping the Department of Defense to find solutions to bacterial warfare. That project should end in June. The music conservatory is host to the Annual International Piano Competition in August. And the administrative department is revising the entire catalog before November.

How would you start? How long would it take you to prepare a good estimate? What type of estimate would you prepare, and what approach would you use to develop a cost estimate?

Ensure that your paper addresses the following:

• The process and activities of planning schedule management.
• Network diagrams and dependencies used to assist in activity sequencing.
• Various tools and techniques used by project managers to perform activity duration estimates.
• The process of planning cost management including different types of cost estimates and methods for preparing them.

Please discuss in-depth.