This presentation was given by Dale Shermon of Qinetiq to the members of APM's South Wales and West of England branch on Wednesday 4th June 2014. The event was kindly hosted by Diligenta in Bristol.
Being able to forecast the cost of projects has been challenging in the past, but now there is a need to explore the science of cost reduction too.
This presentation briefly discussed the three methods of estimating; analytical, analogous and parametric before studying parametric cost and schedule estimating in more depth. It considered the benefits of generating parametric estimates early in the project life cycle and other applications of parametric estimating when little information is available to the project manager.
The presentation reviewed the maturity of risk management and cost estimating in organisations and the effect this can have upon financial decisions made by project managers.
Finally, the presentation explored the means of making projects more cost effective using cost estimating relationships (CER) to explore cost saving measures suitable for these years of austerity.