GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide Released
Congratulations to the GAO team for releasing the “Cost Estimating and Assessment guide: Best Practices for developing and Managing Capital Program Costs”. This has been a work in progress for several years and represents a nearly superhuman effort on the part of the GAO team. Galorath is proud that is was able to assist in the guidebook development as well.
The guidebook may be downloaded here. And the press release from GAO follows:
—————————– The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued its first-ever manual to help federal, state, or local government agencies develop more reliable cost estimates for government projects of all sizes.
Washington, DC (March 2, 2009)
Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Developing and Managing Capital Program Costs
“GAO’s new guide is intended to help agencies produce well-documented, comprehensive, accurate, and credible estimates. The federal cost-estimating community has long needed better tools for preparing cost projections. GAO’s new manual, with its formalized approach to cost estimating based on best practices, will go a long way to bridging that gap,” said Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO. “Government agencies will be better able to avoid common problems, such as cost overruns, missed deadlines, and performance shortfalls,” Dodaro added.
Developed with input from industry experts as well as federal officials, the
436-page Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide lays out a multi-step process for developing high-quality, trustworthy cost estimates; explains how to manage program costs once a contract has been awarded; and presents 48 case studies, drawn from GAO published audits, that illustrate typical pitfalls and successes in cost estimating. The guide stresses both sound cost estimating and earned value management (EVM), a project management tool that compares completed work to expected outcomes, in setting realistic program baselines and managing risk. In future audits, GAO plans to use the Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide to assess the accuracy of agencies’ cost estimates and determine whether programs are on schedule. The guide can be found here: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-3SP
(GAO-09-3SP), which is available on-line at www.gao.gov, applies to civilian and defense projects managed by government entities or private contractors.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Related Posts Computer Generated
Comments
Leave a Reply