Types of Data
In general, the three main types of data are cost data, schedule or program data, and technical data. Cost data generally include labor dollars (with supporting labor hours and direct costs and overhead rates), material and its overhead dollars, facilities capital cost of money,23 and profit associated with various activities. Program cost estimators often do not have details about specific dollar amounts, so they tend to focus mostly on hours of resources needed by skill level. These estimates of hours are often inputs to specialized databases to convert them to cost estimates in dollars.
Schedule or program data provide parameters that directly affect the overall cost. For example, lead-time schedules, start and duration of effort, delivery dates, outfitting, testing, initial operational capability dates, operating profiles, contract type, multiyear procurement, and sole-source or competitive awards must all be considered in developing a cost estimate.
Technical data define the requirements for the equipment being estimated based on physical and performance attributes, such as length, width, weight, horsepower, and size. When technical data are collected, care must be taken to relate the types of technologies and development or production methodologies to be used. These relationships change over time and require adjustments when cost estimating relationships are being developed or revised.
Program and technical data provide context for cost data, which by themselves may be meaningless. Consider these two examples:
Veteran Administration hospital utilities cost $100,000.
An aircraft consumes 500 gallons of fuel per hour.
In the Veteran Administration hospital example, technical and program parameters that would provide insight into the specific utilities and the time frame the utilities were consumed are missing. In the aircraft example, a cost estimator would need to know what type of aircraft consumes 500 gallons per hour—a light jet or a long-range jet—and what type of fuel is consumed.
It is essential that cost estimators plan for and gain access, when feasible, to cost, technical, and program data in order to develop a complete understanding of what the data represent. Without this understanding, a cost estimator may not be able to correctly interpret the data, leading to a potential misapplication of the data.
Facilities capital cost of money is an imputed cost related to the cost of contractor capital committed to facilities.↩︎