Other Considerations

Documenting the cost estimate should not be a last-minute effort. If documentation is left untouched until the end of the estimating process, it will be much harder to recapture the rationale and judgments that formed the cost estimate, and will increase the chance of overlooking important information that can cause credibility issues. Documentation should be done in parallel with the estimate’s development so that the quality of the data, methods, and rationale are fully justified. More information is preferred over too little since the purpose of documenting the estimate is to allow for recreating it or updating it by someone else who knows nothing about the program or estimate. Consequently, documentation should be written step by step and should include everything necessary for another analyst to easily and quickly replicate the estimate and arrive at the same results. In addition, access to an electronic copy of the cost model supporting the estimate should be available with the documentation so that updates can be performed efficiently. Finally, the cost estimate and documentation need to be stored so that authorized personnel can easily find it and use it for future estimates.