1. Estimating Project Costs

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Introduction

Project Cost Management is a set of activities for estimating costs of project, determining and approving a necessary budget, allocating financial resources and controlling spending for the purpose of ensuring that the project is performed under approved budget. Project cost management allows addressing the identification, development, allocation and management of the project budget. The given project cost management definition can be applied to most kinds of project.

In this article you will learn the following:

Cost Estimating Principles Types of Project Cost Cost Estimates Cost Estimation Process Example of Cost Estimation Process

Project Cost Estimating Principles

The process of estimating costs is a methodological activity that complies with a set of cost estimating principles. Such principles act as a foundation for identifying and estimating project costs. Here is a list of the key project cost estimating principles:

The Principle of Integrity. With reference to this cost estimation principle, any estimate should be produced with a high standard of ethical integrity and by following an open or transparent process. Any uncertainties and vagueness associated with estimates should be explained in an easy-to-understand manner and in laymen’s terms. The principle allows avoiding false precision and rash decisions on cost estimates by integrating all people involved in the cost estimation process into a team which works as a single mechanism operating the same information on project cost estimating.

Cost Estimates Information. The development of cost estimates should be based only on the best information available. When cost estimators develop any estimate, engineering judgment and technical advice should be applied any assumption made at that estimate. By following this cost estimation principle, all information used for developing estimates can be thoroughly considered, filtered and refined in order to get the most accurate and relevant pieces of that information.

Risk and Uncertainty. Any project cost should be identified and used within an estimate considering uncertainties and risks. A methodological and exhaustive method of assessing and reassessing project risk and uncertainty should be applied to estimating project costs. Cost estimation software can be used to associate each project cost with potential risks or uncertainties surrounding the project. Cost estimation software will also allow considering project risks by producing accurate contingencies in estimates that may be used later for developing a risk management plan.

Expert Estimating Team. The principle assumes that only a skilled, interdisciplinary team of experts should produce estimates and make cost calculations. Project estimating sheets should be developed utilizing a clearly defined work statement. The team of experts should use methodological tools and cost estimating approaches to develop estimates. The estimating team can be composed of the project team members, experienced personnel of the performing organization, as well as experts from outside qualified agencies. Technical, managerial, and communication cost estimating skills are required for the members of the estimating team. They should also be able to identify and evaluate critical issues and risks.

Validation of Estimates: An expert, unbiased estimating team should validate project cost estimates. The project manger should develop initial estimates of project costs and submit these estimated to the estimating team for validation. A second independent judgment will allow making estimates more correct and capturing a different perspective on the project cost estimating process. This cost estimation principle become more important to complex projects which require producing large estimates.

Release and Use of Estimates. The principle assumes that while project cost estimates might have been developed for a specific goal, they can be used improperly by those people who do not understand the applicable context. Until the estimating team has been thoroughly reviewed cost estimates and validated their content, these cost estimates should not be released to the project team and stakeholders in order to avoid misuse and misunderstanding of cost estimations. Then cost estimates would be consistent with the project scope and accurate indicators of project costs.

Types of Project Costs

All the costs of a project can be broken down into three categories that include the following project cost types:

Variable Cost and Fixed Cost. A Fixed Cost refers to a cost which is not to be changed throughout the project progress. Fixed cost does not change an increase or reduction of the project work amount. Examples of fixed project cost are setup cost, rental cost, cost for hiring of equipment, etc. A Variable Cost refers to any costs that can be changed with an amount of project work. An increase or

reduction of project scope causes the respective change in variable costs. Examples of variable project cost are cost of production materials, remuneration of project team, cost of power and water.

Direct Cost and Indirect Cost. A Direct Cost is a cost that is directly associated with particular tasks or/and activities of the project. Examples of direct project expense are team wages and expense on materials used during the project. An Indirect Cost refers to expenses on overhead items (overheads). Indirect cost does not refer to the project cost value. Examples of indirect project cost are: corporate tax, fringe benefit tax.

Opportunity Cost. An Opportunity Cost is a cost associated with an opportunity of a choice for the project. When you select between two different projects, or activities within one project, you can consider opportunity expense of each project (activity) and then make your choice.

Project Cost Estimates

The major tools of project cost estimation are estimates which can be developed in a spreadsheet view. A cost estimate for a project is a calculation of all (monetary and time) resources necessary to perform and deliver the project. It is used to calculate and compare resources.

Project cost estimates generally show an amount of some currency units (e.g. USD, GBP, UAH) as well as an amount of working hours or total working time required to complete the project.

Sometime, project cost estimates include both currency units and working hours and show a comparison between both measures. Cost estimation software can be used to create cost estimates and define units per line and per column in the estimates.

Cost estimate spreadsheets are not static and to be continuously developed and modified throughout the course of the project in order to reflect additional details as project processes are being progressed. The accuracy plays the pivotal role in developing and managing cost estimates and spreadsheets. While project processes develop and change, project cost estimates should also be respectively changed and supplemented with new details. The matter of cost estimate accuracy is defined by cost estimation standards and requirements so that each organization can define the expected degree of accuracy. Cost estimation software allows creating cost estimate templates and sample cost spreadsheets that include specific accuracy degrees and possible deviations.

In project cost estimating spreadsheets, all information on the resources that can be changed throughout the project course is included and used. A typical project cost estimating spreadsheet includes information from such sources as labor, infrastructure, materials, financial resources, facilities, services, work time, etc. Cost estimating spreadsheets may also include special categories, such as contingency costs and inflation allowance.

Project Cost Estimation Process

Estimating costs (cost estimation) is a process of determining an amount of monetary resources required to accomplish project activities. The process of project cost estimating involves the approximation and development of costing alternatives to plan, perform and deliver the project. The process focuses on finding and allocating optimal costs for the project.

The process is vital to determining whether the project will be successful, all its goals and objectives will be achieved and its deliverables will be produced. Considering this statement, the following definition of a successful project can be made: the project becomes successful if it meets the four success criteria:

the scope is developed and produced on schedule; the scope is delivered within budget; the quality expectation are met; and the expected benefits are receive by stakeholders

The cost estimation process influences all the items of the project success criteria so the project manager should understand all the importance of the process.

The process of estimating project costs involves applying several specific techniques, in combination or separately. Here a list of the key project cost estimation techniques and tools:

Analogous Cost Estimating. This technique is also known as “Historical Data Analysis” and it assumes applying the actual cost of previous or analogues projects as the foundation for estimating the cost of the current project. This cost estimation technique is usually applied to separate segments of the project and in combination with other techniques and tools.

Parametric Cost Estimating. It is an effective method that allows using historical and statistical data on the project to make an estimate for activity parameters (like scope, budget and duration). It may provide

a higher degree of estimation accuracy depending on the data included in the parametric model. The technique can be used separately as well as in combination with other cost estimation techniques and tools.

Bottom-up Cost Estimating. This method supports the idea that the individual activity cost (or work package cost) consciousness is of prime importance. It assumes estimating cost of a smaller work unit. By using the method, individual scheduled activities, or a work package, can be estimated to the smallest detail. Then all estimated costs are grouped and sorted by cost categories, and then gathered into the summary table that is used for tracking, control and reporting purposes.

Top-down Cost Estimating. This technique is opposite to Bottom-up Cost Estimating method. The technique assumes that the total project budget is determined at the project’s beginning and the estimating team needs to identify the costs of each project work item (task or job). The method of Top-down Cost Estimating allows determining the number of required activities and tasks referring to the WBS which reflects the necessary work items and work packages. By using the WBS, the team can determine the quantity of the work items that can be delivered within the fix project budget. The team may decide to add or remove certain items in the WBS in order to fit the fix project budget.

Reserve Analysis. Since Quality Assurance and Quality Control are integrated parts of the cost estimate process, the technique is used to deal with uncertainties that may overstate or understate project costs by making cost estimate reviews. It assumes that costs may include reserves (or contingency allowances) which can be used for mitigating risks and responding to threats. Reserves should be estimated and then added to cost estimated in order to allow applying the critical chain method and risk mitigation strategies.

Cost of Quality. The method of estimating quality cost allows develop the schedule activity cost estimate and estimate how many resources it is required to achieve the expected quality.

By using project estimation software (like MS Project, VIP Task Manager Pro), all the listed tools and techniques can be managed and applied. Advanced examples of project estimation software allow managing project tasks, making billing and payment activities, documenting transactions and resource transfers, communicating with project participants, customers and vendors, planning meetings and events, and sharing cost estimating information.

Example of the Cost Estimating Process

Most projects face the same or similar problems related to estimating costs and managing financial resources. New technologies, teams unfamiliar with these technologies, or unclear project work statements are most frequent problems. Here is probably one of the best ways to estimate and calculate costs for your project. The given example of cost estimate process is most applicable to IT projects and software development projects.

Step #1. Breaking project work down into smaller tasks. You need to decompose your project work into as many work items (tasks and jobs) as possible. A convenient way to break down your tasks is to consider typical activities appropriate to your project, and then see whether they can be divided into tasks and todo lists. For example, a software development project involves such typical activities as such Analysis, Designing, Developing, Demo, Testing, Bug Fixing, Documenting, Deploying, and Supporting. Now having these activities, you can divide each of the activities into a number of smaller tasks and actions. The Analysis activity can be divided into several tasks, like “Collecting Necessary Info”, “Examining Collected Info”, “Creating a software development plan”, etc.

Step #2. Evaluating tasks. Once you have specified tasks and jobs for each typical process/activity in your project, now it is time to evaluate the tasks considering two scales: Complexity (high, medium, low) and Work Size (large, medium, small). Note that less complex tasks may still require a large amount of work, so for example Low Complexity does not necessary involves Small Work Size. For example, you run an IT project, and you need to load a database that contains information taken from paper documents. Loading may take several weeks which means that a very complex task (“Loading Database”) may not involve much actual work of people but can still take much time, as in configuring the database for optimum performance. Evaluating tasks can be a complicated matter because complex tasks are usually hard to allocate between team members, while large-sized yet less complex tasks can usually be shared between team members.

Step #3. Regarding to the previous step, all project tasks can be effectively broken down into nine combinations of complexity and size (3×3 – high, medium, low versus large, medium, low). Therefore, each task can fall into one of the combinations. For each combination, you need to estimate an expected amount of resources (time, people, money) required. For example, you have evaluated tasks and now you can state that high-complexity and small-sized tasks take three weeks at most, medium-complexity and small-size tasks take one week, and so on. All possible combinations of tasks should be reviewed and evaluated, so that your will define better values for your project. By combing all defined values for each task, you can obtain a cost estimate of resources (time, people, money) required

Create Group Synergy With Facilitation Human synergy occurs when the combined effort of two or more people is greater than the sum of the individual efforts. An effective facilitator works to achieve common goals by encouraging synergy. You can create group synergy by developing an office culture that values and respects the talent of its employees.

Difficulty:

Instructions

1 Value every view. Rather than operating with a "majority rules" approach, seek to achieve consensus. This may take more time, but group members will see that they all play a role in coming to the best decision.

o 2

Affirm that each person has a unique set of strengths that the group needs. Encourage an employee to develop in skill areas where she has a natural inclination. Workers enjoy their work more and the group stands to gain from their fulfillment.

o 3

Insist that group members look to each other for direction and validation. This fosters cooperative conversation. It drives home the point that the facilitator guides the group rather than taking a solely top-down approach.

o 4

Praise the group for whatever qualities you want to see more of, whether that is speed, quality, efficiency, creativity, or other important criteria for the project at hand. In this way, the facilitator provides direction and validation.

o 5

Maintain balance between individual and group needs. Valuing the individual while keeping the common goals in the forefront requires skill and insight, but it is essential to maintain a well-functioning group.

o 6

Focus on external threats and obstacles. Such a focus helps diffuse competition and build cooperation. Rallying the group to overcome a specific obstacle is a unifying activity.

Synergy Effect in Management Information System

Dwight Chestnut has been a freelance business researcher and article writer for over 18 years. He has published several business articles online and written several business ebooks. Chestnut holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mississippi (1980) and a Master of Business Administration from University of Phoenix (2004). By Dwight Chestnut, eHow Contributor

updated November 25, 2010

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Information technology enhances synergistic relationships among employees. Flag this photo

One of the primary sources of innovation within companies is open and effective collaboration among employees, corporate departments and corporate partners. New synergistic relationships develop, which lead to new innovations. Information technology systems, such as a Management Information System (MIS), help facilitate open and effective collaboration.

1. Definitionso Management information systems (MIS) are systems that collect raw data from a variety of information

systems throughout a business enterprise and deliver it in useful form to help managers make decisions. Synergy describes the resulting effect of what happens when individuals are motivated or empowered to work together in non-traditional ways to stimulate new ideas and increase productivity.

Effects

o The application of information technology systems breaks down traditional communications barriers among corporate departments and companies, allowing individuals to interact and collaborate in ways not possible before--thus creating new synergies. This applies to MIS systems as well as other IT systems. However, the benefits of this synergy heavily depend on the willingness of individuals to step outside of their traditional roles and work together.

Significance

o In a global economy, companies that continuously innovate and create new products and services win. The quality and speed of innovation is directly linked to the synergy created from open and effective collaboration among all corporate stakeholders.

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Definitions and usages

In the context of organizational behavior, following the view that a cohesive group is more than the sum of its parts, synergy is the ability of a group to outperform even its best individual member. These conclusions are derived from the studies conducted by Jay Hall on a number of laboratory-based group ranking and prediction tasks. He found that effective groups actively looked for the points in which they disagreed and in consequence encouraged conflicts amongst the participants in the early stages of the discussion. In contrast, the ineffective groups felt a need to establish a common view quickly, used simple decision making methods such as averaging, and focused on completing the task rather than on finding solutions they could agree on.[2]

In a technical context, its meaning is a construct or collection of different elements working together to produce results not obtainable by any of the elements alone. The elements, or parts, can include people, hardware, software, facilities, policies, documents: all things required to produce system-level results. The value added by the system as a whole, beyond that contributed independently by the parts, is primarily created by the relationship among the parts; that is, how they are interconnected. In essence, a system constitutes a set of interrelated components working together with a common objective: fulfilling some designated need.[3]

If used in a business application it means that teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person was working toward the same goal individually. However, the concept of group cohesion needs to be considered. Group cohesion is that property which is inferred from the number and strength of mutual positive attitudes among members of the group. As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats.[4]

There are negative aspects of group cohesion which have an effect on group decision-making and hence on group effectiveness. There are two issues arising. The risky shift phenomenon is the tendency of a group to make decisions that are riskier than those that the group would have recommended individually. Group Polarisation is when individuals in a group begin by taking a moderate stance on an issue regarding a common value and, after having discussed it, end up taking a more extreme stance.[5]

A second, potential negative consequence of group cohesion is group think. Group think is a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in cohesive group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to appraise realistically the alternative courses of action. Studying the events of several American policy "disasters" such as the failure to anticipate the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1941) and the Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco (1961), Irving Janis argued that they were due to the cohesive nature of the committees that made the relevant decisions.[6]

That decisions made by committees lead to failure in a simple system is noted by Dr. Chris Elliot. His case study looked at IEEE-488, an international standard set by the leading US standards body; it led to a failure of small automation systems using the IEEE-488 standard (which codified a proprietary communications standard HP-IB). But the external devices used for communication were made by two different companies and the incompatibility between the external devices led to a financial loss for the company. He argues that systems will be only safe if they are designed, not if they emerge by chance.[7]

The idea of a systemic approach is endorsed by the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive: The successful performance of the health and safety management depends upon the analyzing the causes of incidents and accidents and learning correct lessons from them. The idea is that all events (not just those causing injuries) represent failures in control, and present an opportunity for learning and improvement.[8] This book describes the principles and management practices, which provide the basis of effective health and safety management. It sets out the issues which need to be addressed, and can be used for developing improvement programs, self-audit or self-assessment. Its message is that organizations need to manage health and safety with the same degree of expertise and to the same standards as other core business activities, if they are to effectively control risks and prevent harm to people.

The term synergy was refined by R. Buckminster Fuller who analyzed some of its implications more fully[9] and coined the term Synergetics.[10]

A dynamic state in which combined action is favored over the difference of individual component actions.

Behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately, known as emergent behavior.

The cooperative action of two or more stimuli (or drugs), resulting in a different or greater response than that of the individual stimuli.

[edit] Drug synergy

Drug synergy occurs when drugs can interact in ways that enhance or magnify one or more effects, or side effects, of those drugs. This is sometimes exploited in combination preparations, such as codeine mixed with acetaminophen or ibuprofen to enhance the action of codeine as a pain reliever. This is often seen with recreational drugs, where 5-HTP, a serotonin precursor often used as an antidepressant, is often used prior to, during, and shortly after recreational use of MDMA as it allegedly increases the "high" and decreases the "comedown" stages of MDMA use (although most anecdotal evidence has pointed to 5-HTP moderately muting the effect of MDMA[citation needed]). Other examples include the use of Cannabis with LSD, where the active chemicals in cannabis have been reported to enhance the hallucinatory experience of LSD.[citation

needed].

Negative effects of synergy are a form of contraindication. For example, a combination of depressant drugs that affect the central nervous system (CNS), such as alcohol and Valium, can cause a greater reaction than simply the sum of the individual effects of each drug if they were used separately. In this particular case, the most serious consequence of drug synergy is exaggerated respiratory depression, which can be fatal if left untreated.

Drug synergy can occur both in biological activity and because of pharmacokinetics. Shared metabolic enzymes can cause drugs to remain in the bloodstream much longer in higher concentrations than if individually taken.

[edit] Biological sciences

Synergy has been advanced by Robert Corning as a hypothesis on how complex systems operate.[11] Environmental systems may react in a non-linear way to perturbations, such as climate change, so that the outcome may be greater than the sum of the individual component alterations. Synergistic responses are a complicating factor in environmental modeling.[12]

[edit] Pest synergy

Pest synergy would occur in a biological host organism population where, for example, the introduction of parasite A may cause 10% fatalities, and parasite B may also cause 10% loss. When both parasites are present, the losses would normally be expected to total less than 20%, yet in some cases, losses are significantly greater. In such cases it is said that the parasites in combination have a synergistic effect.

[edit] Toxicological synergy

Toxicological synergy is of concern to the public and regulatory agencies because chemicals individually considered safe might pose unacceptable health or ecological risk in combination. Articles in scientific and lay journals include many definitions of chemical or toxicological synergy, often vague or in conflict with each other. Because toxic interactions are defined relative to the expectation under "no interaction", a determination of synergy (or antagonism) depends on what is meant by "no interaction". The United States Environmental Protection Agency has one of the more detailed and precise definitions of toxic interaction, designed to facilitate risk assessment. In their guidance documents, the no-interaction default assumption is dose addition, so synergy means a mixture response that exceeds that predicted from dose addition. The EPA emphasizes that synergy does not always make a mixture dangerous, nor does antagonism always make the mixture safe; each depends on the predicted risk under dose addition.

For example, a consequence of pesticide use is the risk of health effects. During the registration of pesticides in the United States exhaustive tests are performed to discern health effects on humans at various exposure levels. A regulatory upper limit of presence in foods is then placed on this pesticide. As long as residues in the food stay below this regulatory level, health effects are deemed highly unlikely and the food is considered safe to consume.

However, in normal agricultural practice it is rare to use only a single pesticide. During the production of a crop several different materials may be used. Each of them has had determined a regulatory level at which they would be considered individually safe. In many cases, a commercial pesticide is itself a combination of several chemical agents, and thus the safe levels actually represent levels of the mixture. In contrast, a combination created by the end user, such as a farmer, has rarely been tested in that combination. The potential for synergy is then unknown or estimated from data on similar combinations. This lack of information also applies to many of the chemical combinations to which humans are exposed, including residues in food, indoor air contaminants, and occupational exposures to chemicals. Some groups think that the rising rates of cancer, asthma and other health problems may be caused by these combination exposures; others have alternative explanations. This question will likely be answered only after years of exposure by the population in general and research on chemical toxicity, usually performed on animals. Examples of pesticide synergists include Piperonyl butoxide and MGK 264.[13]

[edit] Human synergy

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Human synergy relates to humans. For example, say person A alone is too short to reach an apple on a tree and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulders of person

A, they are more than tall enough to reach the apple. In this example, the product of their synergy would be one apple. Another case would be two politicians. If each is able to gather one million votes on their own, but together they were able to appeal to 2.5 million voters, their synergy would have produced 500,000 more votes than had they each worked independently. A song is also a good example of human synergy, taking more than one musical part and putting them together to create a song that has a much more dramatic effect than each of the parts when played individually.

A third form of human synergy is when one person is able to complete two separate tasks by doing one action. For example, if a person was asked by a teacher and his boss at work to write an essay on how he could improve his work, that would be considered synergy. Or, a more visual example of this synergy is a drummer using four separate rhythms to create one drum beat.

Synergy usually arises when two persons with different complementary skills cooperate. In business, cooperation of people with organizational and technical skills happens very often. In general, the most common reason why people cooperate is it brings a synergy. On the other hand, people tend to specialize just to be able to form groups with high synergy (see also division of labor and teamwork).

Example: Two teams in System Admin working together to combine technical and organizational skills in order to better the client experience, thus creating synergy.

[edit] Corporate synergy

Corporate synergy occurs when corporations interact congruently. A corporate synergy refers to a financial benefit that a corporation expects to realize when it merges with or acquires another corporation. This type of synergy is a nearly ubiquitous feature of a corporate acquisition and is a negotiating point between the buyer and seller that impacts the final price both parties agree to. There are distinct types of corporate synergies:

[edit] Revenue

A revenue synergy refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity to generate more revenue than its two predecessor stand-alone companies would be able to generate. For example, if company A sells product X through its sales force, company B sells product Y, and company A decides to buy company B then the new company could use each sales person to sell products X and Y thereby increasing the revenue that each sales person generates for the company.

In media revenue, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films, soundtracks or video games.

[edit] Management

Synergy in terms of management and in relation to team working refers to the combined effort of individuals as participants of the team. Positive or negative synergy can exist. The condition that

exists when the organization's parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone.

[edit] Cost

A cost synergy refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity to reduce or eliminate expenses associated with running a business. Cost synergies are realized by eliminating positions that are viewed as duplicate within the merged entity. Examples include the head quarters office of one of the predecessor companies, certain executives, the human resources department, or other employees of the predecessor companies. This is related to the economic concept of economies of scale.

[edit] Computers

Synergy can also be defined as the combination of human strengths and computer strengths, such as advanced chess. Computers can process data much more quickly than humans, but lack the ability to respond meaningfully to arbitrary stimuli.

[edit] Synergy in the media

In media economics, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and all its versions) throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate,[14] e.g. films, soundtracks or video games. Walt Disney pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey Mouse character in products and ads, and continued to market Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the film's sales. For example, the Spider-Man films had toys of webshooters and figures of the characters made, as well as posters and games.[15] The NBC sitcom 30 Rock often shows the power of synergy.

[edit] Obligatory Synergies

When spasticity occurs, such as following a stroke, it manifests in abnormal and stereotypical patterns across multiple joints called obligatory synergies.[16] They are described as either a flexion synergy or an extension synergy and effect both the upper and lower extremity (see below).[16] When these patterns occur in a patient, he or she is unable to move a limb segment in isolation of the pattern.[16] This interferes with normal activities of daily living.[16] Some aspects of the obligatory synergy patterns however, can be cleverly used to increase function relative to the movement available to the individual. Careful thought should therefore be considered in deciding which muscle groups to stretch at specific times during recovery. Obligatory synergy patterns are observed when a patient tries to make a minimal voluntary movement, or as a result of stimulated reflexes.[16]

The flexion synergy for the upper extremity includes scapular retraction and elevation, shoulder abduction and external rotation, elbow flexion, forearm supination, and wrist and finger flexion.[16]

The extension synergy for the upper extremity includes scapular protraction, shoulder adduction and internal rotation, elbow extension, forearm pronation, and wrist and finger flexion.[16]

The flexion synergy for the lower extremity includes hip flexion, abduction and external rotation, knee flexion, ankle dorsiflexion and inversion and toe dorsiflexion.[16]

The extension synergy for the lower extremity includes hip extension, adduction and internal rotation, knee extension, ankle plantar flexion and inversion and toe plantar flexion.[16]

Note that some muscles are not usually involved in these synergy patterns and include the lattisimus dorsi, teres major, serratus anterior, finger extensors, and ankle evertors.[16]

[edit] See also