Integrating the WBS, Project Schedule, and Cost Estimate
The Government Contract Pricing Summit begins June 18th in San Diego. I have a presentation scheduled for June 19th on how to use several of my favorite tools to kick-start a cost proposal in a most efficient manner. Here's the short version:
- A cost proposal must be current, complete and accurate - especially so if you are signing a certificate of current pricing. You know it's current because you just updated it using all the latest data - good. You know it's accurate because you have back-up data for every cost - including vendor or subcontractor quotes and historical data - good. But what about complete? Have you identified and quantified each element of work to be done?
- The best way to capture the total scope of a project is through the creation of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) specific to that project. That WBS should be a common program document - shared by schedule, project management, and costing.
- The tool(s) used and the person(s) responsible for creating and maintaining the WBS, the Project Schedule, and the project cost estimate should be coordinated to achieve the following results:
- Ensure all work is identified, cataloged and evaluated for cost contribution to the project.
- Be consistent when viewed from different facets of the resulting "data cube"
- Be portable between/among applications so as to make collection and data entry a simple and one-time event. Reentering data previously used in one application into another is a recipe for data entry errors and resulting estimating issues.
So my thrust in this presentation will be twofold. First why we need to do the above. Secondly, what tools and techniques can we use to optimize the process and produce consistent results. Since the conference is sponsored by my friends at PROPRICER, their tool will be center stage along with Microsoft Project and a couple of other tools I sometimes use - WBS Schedule Pro and Risky Project.
I'm looking forward to seeing you there and sharing a very interesting technique for integrating these products.