Cost Estimation: Methods And Tools

Cost estimating has always been a supportive element of decision support disciplines such as cost-benefit analyses, and within the past three years, cost estimating has taken on a critical and central role in decision analysis, as evidenced by, for example, national legislation such as the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act (WSARA) of 2009, the growth of the professional cost estimating community, and the growth of professional societies, including the Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis (SCEA).Cost Estimation: Methods and Tools features quantitative techniques for the working professional cost estimator within industry and government agencies.
The authors address why cost estimation is needed, who does it, and where relevant data can be found such as databases on cost estimation, including those maintained by the Defense Cost and Resource Center (DCARC) and Visibility and Management of Operating and Supporting Costs (VAMOSC). In addition, the book details the fundamentals of cost estimation, including working with inflation indices, regression analysis, learning curves, analogies, cost factors, and wrap rates.

Gregory K. Mislick is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Operations Research and Program Manager for the Masters Degree Program in Cost Estimating and Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). A retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel aviator and past associate dean of the Graduate School of Operational and Information Sciences at NPS, his research interests includes life cycle cost estimating and modeling, probability and statistics, regression analysis, learning curves, and optimization.

Daniel A. Nussbaum, PhD, is Visiting Professor in the Department of Operations Research at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. With over 30 years of professional experience providing financial estimating and analysis services to senior levels of the U.S. Federal government, Dr. Nussbaum's research interests includes cost/benefit analyses, life cycle cost estimating and modeling, and financial modeling.