Project finance and infrastructure investment require you to understand the difference between what you actually have to pay as a cost to get something and how much you are going to pay as an outcome of your investment. The first thing that you need to look out for is a portfolio management plan. This will tell you in black and white how much money you are going to invest as well as what projects you can do. If you are familiar with the concepts involved then you should easily be able to understand the project portfolio management. You may even get some ideas from the project manager who has just handed you the portfolio management plan.
The next thing you need to know about is project risk. Your project risk is the risk posed by a project if it fails. In case it fails, then there will be a huge loss of investment. So, if you are willing to get your portfolio management done right then you can easily understand that concept. Once you get familiar with the concepts then you will not face any project risk.
Next step will be to read about the projects that you are going to study. You need to read about the history, objectives, target and financial statements so that you can understand the nature of the infrastructure investment. You need to understand how the managers of the project make the decisions. Only with this understanding you will be able to make the right decision as your career progresses.
After doing all these things you need to create a portfolio management plan for your study. The first thing you should do is to create a workbook for your portfolio. You can use the portfolio management plan as your guide to create the financial statement. You have to prepare a balance sheet, statement of cash flows and budget. For the balance sheet you can use the project history as the references. If you want to create the budget you have to estimate the financial statements and then allocate the money for specific purposes.
Now that you have prepared the portfolio management plan you can proceed with the project. Now you will have to select the right project manager. If you are familiar with the concepts of portfolio management then you will be able to select the right project manager for your project. Remember, the project manager has to be an expert in order to do a good job. So the project manager should have strong managerial skills as well.
If the project manager is not capable enough to manage the finance and the project then you can simply assign the responsibility to some other experienced individual. Another important thing is that you have to delegate the responsibilities to other individuals so that the manager can concentrate on the core aspects of the project. For example you can have the finance and project manager working hand in hand. This way the manager will be able to concentrate on core aspects of the project and he will be able to handle the daily tasks easily.
You have to create a financial statement for your project. You have to create a financial statement which includes the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow analysis. The income statement will include your salary plus benefits; the balance sheet will show the cash inflows and outflows and the cash management status including the capital budgeting, working capital management and investments made in the projects. Finally, the cash flow analysis will show you the cash inflows and outflows of your project.