Survey of Step 10
Process Tasks
Document all steps performed to develop the estimate so that a cost analyst unfamiliar with the program can recreate it quickly and produce the same result.
Document the purpose of the estimate, the team that prepared it, and who approved the estimate and on what date.
Describe the program, its schedule, and the technical baseline used to create the estimate.
Present the program’s time-phased life cycle cost.
Discuss all ground rules and assumptions.
Include auditable and traceable data sources for each cost element and document how the source data were normalized.
Describe in detail the estimating methodology and rationale used to derive each WBS element’s cost.
Describe the results of the risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analyses and whether any contingency was identified.
Document how the estimate compares to the funding profile.
Track how the current estimate compares to previous estimates.
Best Practices
The documentation shows the source data used, the reliability of the data, and the estimating methodology used to derive each element’s cost.
Data are adequate for easily updating the estimate to reflect actual costs or program changes so that they can be used for future estimates.
The documentation identifies what methods were used such as analogy, expert opinion, engineering build up, parametric, or extrapolation from actual cost data.
The supporting data have been documented. For example, sources, content, time, and units are documented, along with an assessment of the accuracy of the data and reliability and circumstances affecting the data.
The documentation describes how the data were normalized, and the documentation includes the inflation indexes that were used.
The inflation indexes used to convert constant year dollars to budget year dollars are documented.
The documentation describes how the estimate was developed so that a cost analyst unfamiliar with the program could understand what was done and replicate it.
The documentation describes the estimate with narrative and cost tables and contains an executive summary, introduction, and descriptions of methods, with data broken out by WBS cost elements, sensitivity analysis, risk and uncertainty analysis, and updates that reflect actual costs and changes.
The documentation addresses the guidance used to govern the creation, maintenance, structure, and status of the cost estimate.
The documentation completely describes the risk and uncertainty analysis. For example, the documentation discusses contingency and how it was derived, the cumulative probability of the point estimate, correlation, and the derivation of risk distributions.
The documentation includes access to an electronic copy of the cost model, and both the documentation and the cost model are stored so that authorized personnel can easily find and use them for other cost estimates.
The documentation discusses the technical baseline description and the data in the technical baseline are consistent with the cost estimate.
- The technical data and assumptions in the cost estimate documentation are consistent with the technical baseline description.
Likely Effects if Criteria Are Not Fully Met
Without good documentation, management and oversight will not be convinced that the estimate is credible; supporting data will not be available for creating a historical database; questions about the approach or data used to create the estimate cannot be answered; lessons learned and a history for tracking why costs changed will not be recorded; and the scope of the analysis will not be defined.
Without adequate documentation, an analyst unfamiliar with the program will not be able to replicate the estimate because they will not be provided enough information to recreate it step by step.
Unless the estimate is fully documented, it will not support an effective independent review or reconciliation with an independent cost estimate, hindering the understanding of any differences and the ability of decision-makers to make informed decisions.
Unless thoroughly documented, the cost estimate may not be defensible. That is, the documentation may not present a convincing argument of an estimate’s validity or help answer decision-makers’ and oversight groups’ probing questions.