A variation records a change to an existing project’s scope, internal budget or contract value. Its effect depends on its scope, the changes entered and its approval status.
Variation scope
Scope | Purpose and effect | Limits |
External | Records changes that may affect the client-facing contract as well as the internal budget. The budget change and contract value change can differ. | Review both deltas. An external variation does not necessarily increase both values. |
Internal | Adjusts the internal budget while leaving the contract value unchanged. | Cannot add new tasks or deliverables, or affect time-and-materials deliverables. Positive task adjustments must fit within the available buffer. Internal variations are unavailable in budget-only accounts. |
The scope is set when the variation is created and cannot be changed afterwards.
Structural changes
Change | What it represents |
Vary existing work | Adjust existing tasks, resources or expenses. The entered changes determine the budget and contract deltas. |
Add work | Add tasks or deliverables through an external variation. Once approved, the added work becomes part of the project. |
Combine changes | An external variation can adjust existing work and add new work together. |
Approval and project effects
Draft and submitted variations let you prepare and review changes. Their displayed values are not evidence that the changes have been applied to the project.
Approved is the status that applies a variation to the project. Other statuses, including Partially approved, do not apply it. Use the project’s current budget and contract totals to check the active position.
Approval in Drum records the system state. Follow your organisation’s process for obtaining any required client or internal agreement before approval.
Reading variation values
Label | Meaning |
Before / Pre-Var | The value before this variation’s change. |
Delta / Var Delta | The change attributable to this variation, rather than the complete revised value. |
After | The resulting value after applying the change: Before + Delta. |
Budget Total | The internal budget value. Review its delta separately from the contract value delta. |
Contract Value | The client-facing value, where shown. An internal variation has no contract value delta. |
Show All includes unchanged work for context. Variation Changes Only focuses on the changed items.
A variation may have a positive, negative or zero delta. Do not assume that every variation increases the budget or contract value.