Cost Estimating Certificates Offered By Professional Societies In The United States And Abroad
- Conference
- Location
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Honolulu, Hawaii
- Publication Date
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June 24, 2007
- Start Date
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June 24, 2007
- End Date
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June 27, 2007
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Engineering Economy
- Page Count
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12
- Page Numbers
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12.411.1 - 12.411.12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--1758
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/1758
- Download Count
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1131
Paper Authors
Donald Remer Harvey Mudd College
Donald S. Remer is the Oliver C. Field Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. He received his BSE at the Univ. of Michigan and his MS and PhD at Caltech. He is a registered professional Engineer in several states. He has presented short courses to thousands of engineers and managers in industry and government in the areas of Project and Engineering Management, Cost Estimation and Economic Evaluation of Projects, and Managing and Estimating Software Projects. He received the Centennial Award from ASEE.
Karen Ahle Raytheon
Karen M. Ahle graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California in May 2002 with a B.S. in engineering. She is working at Honeywell International, an aerospace and defense manufacturer in El Segundo, CA. Her interests are systems integration and hardware development.
Kevin Alley Southwest Research Institute
Kevin J. Alley graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California in May 2005 with a B.S. in engineering. He is working at Southwest Research Institute, a nonprofit research institute in San Antonio, Texas. His interests are in business management and law.
John Silny Raytheon
John F. Silny graduated from both Harvey Mudd College and Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California in May 2005 with a B.S. in engineering and a B.A. in economics respectively. He is working at Raytheon Corporation, a defense contractor in El Segundo, California. His interests are in business and project management.
Karen Hsin Accenture
Karen Hsin graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California in May 2006 with a B.S. in engineering. Upon graduation, she joined Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company in El Segundo, California. Her interests are in business and project management.
Elijah Kwitman Harvey Mudd College
Elijah Kwitman graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California in May 2007 with a B.S. in engineering. After graduation he plans to travel and pursue career opportunities in the field of engineering design and systems.
Allison Hutchings Harvey Mudd College
Allison Hutchings graduated from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California in May 2007 with a B.S. in engineering. She plans to attend graduate school. Her interests are in structures and dynamics of aerospace systems.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Cost Estimating Certificates Offered by Professional Societies in the United States and Abroad
Abstract
Many projects in industry and government go over budget and schedule. In most engineering economics courses, the emphasis is on how to compare alternatives and learn about time value of money and interest and inflation rates. The students are usually given the costs and asked to compare the alternatives. However, this is the easy part of the analysis. The hard part of real project evaluations is developing the cost and investment numbers to do the engineering economics analysis. In most engineering economic textbooks, there is at most one chapter on cost estimation. More and more companies and government organizations are concerned that their engineers don’t know how to do accurate cost and schedule estimates. Cost estimation is a critical element to doing engineering economic evaluations. For example, one of the authors has presented short courses on cost estimation and economic evaluation to over 10,000 professionals, mostly engineers and engineering managers who are in industry and government. Most of these engineers have taken engineering economics courses while in college, and they have a good grasp of the fundamentals of engineering economics. However, most practicing engineers lack the fundamentals to do accurate cost and schedule estimates. To keep projects from going over budget and schedule, more and more organizations are requiring their engineers and engineering managers to obtain certifications in cost estimation from professional societies. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current certifications offered so practicing engineers and engineering educators will know what is available and what is required to earn these certifications. The four major cost estimating certifications offered by professional societies in the United States are discussed. Eligibility and certification requirements along with examination information are presented. In addition, because many engineers are working on international projects, cost estimation certifications offered by professional societies in other countries are also summarized.
Introduction
Many engineering students take a course in engineering economics while they are in college; however, far fewer engineering students take a course in cost and schedule estimation. A large number of studies have shown that many projects in industry and government go way over budget or schedule.1-4 There are a lot of reasons for this, but one of the major reasons is that the engineers did an insufficient job on the estimate. One of the key reasons is that few engineering students get sufficient cost estimation training while they are in college. As a result, many industrial and governmental organizations are giving their practicing engineers and engineering managers short courses (one to five days) in cost and schedule estimation. There has been a strong push by companies and government organizations to enhance the cost estimation knowledge and in some cases organizations are requiring their engineers and engineering managers to obtain professional society certifications in cost and schedule estimation.
Remer, D., & Ahle, K., & Alley, K., & Silny, J., & Hsin, K., & Kwitman, E., & Hutchings, A. (2007, June), Cost Estimating Certificates Offered By Professional Societies In The United States And Abroad Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1758
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