This unique reference interweaves information on the three major overlapping parts of the total project program: programs (defined as techniques, procedures, and methods), people skills (defined as experience, application, and analytical ability), and the culture of project groups (defined as project commitment and working togetherness). Summarizing the skills necessary for an economic construction program, Effective Project Management Through Applied Cost and Schedule Control presents a detailed evaluation of current project skill levels...reveals a direct correlation between project team-building and cost/schedule control...offers rules of thumb for establishing and developing the scope of a project...suggests value management procedures for creating cost-effective construction designs...delineates a wide range of analytical trending techniques...covers change control and risk analysis...elucidates the procurement needs of a project...and more.

Learning, Unlearning and Re-learning Curves (Volume IV of the Working Guides to Estimating & Forecasting series) focuses in on Learning Curves, and the various tried and tested models of Wright, Crawford, DeJong, Towill-Bevis and others. It explores the differences and similarities between the various models and examines the key properties that Estimators and Forecasters can exploit. A discussion about Learning Curve Cost Drivers leads to the consideration of a little used but very powerful technique of Learning Curve modelling called Segmentation, which looks at an organisation's complex learning curve as the product of multiple shallower learning curves. Perhaps the biggest benefit is that it simplifies the calculations in Microsoft Excel where there is a change in the rate of learning observed or expected. The same technique can be used to model and calibrate discontinuities in the learning process that result in setbacks and uplifts in time or cost. This technique is compared with other, better known techniques such as Anderlohr's. Equivalent Unit Learning is another, relative new technique that can be used alongside traditional completed unit learning to give an early warning of changes in the rates of learning. Finally, a Learning Curve can be exploited to estimate the penalty of collaborative working across multiple partners. Supported by a wealth of figures and tables, this is a valuable resource for estimators, engineers, accountants, project risk specialists, as well as students of cost engineering.

This book presents a comprehensive method by which to determine the proportionate share of the costs and revenues generated by the development of new water, wastewater, and stormwater facilities. It presents a rational, legally defensible approach to assessing charges based on the use of new and existing facilities to support new system development. Written by a consultant who has helped hundreds of communities deal with how to pay for growth, the book is designed for all communities presently engaged in calculating and administering charges for new development, as well as those planning for future growth.

"Construction Economics in a Single European Market" is an edited selection of papers from the first European Construction Economics Conference. Experts give details on construction costs from many European countries including Denmark, Ireland, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain and the UK. This book should be of interest to quantity surveyors, construction economists, and university and college researchers.

Performance management is key to the ongoing success of any organisation, allowing it to meet its strategic objectives by designing and implementing management control systems. This book goes beyond the usual discussion of performance management in accounting and finance, to consider strategic management, human behaviour and performance management in different countries and contexts. With a global mix of world-renowned researchers, this book systematically covers the what, the who, the where and the why of performance management and control (PMC) systems. A comprehensive, state-of-the-art collection edited by a leading expert in the field, this book is a vital resource for all scholars, students and researchers with an interest in business, management and accounting.

The Net Present Value (NPV) forecast lies at the heart of the business case on many projects. Martin Hopkinson's guide explains when, why and how NPV models should be built for projects and how this approach can be integrated with the risk management process. NPV models tend to be used during the earliest phases of a project as the business case is being developed. Typically, these are the stages when uncertainty is at its highest and when the opportunities to influence the project's plan are at their greatest. This book shows how project financial forecasting and risk management principles can be used to both improve NPV forecasts and to shape the project solution into one that is risk-robust. The text is sufficiently broad to be practicable for first-time users to employ the methods described. But it also contains insights into the process that are likely to be new to the majority of experienced practitioners. All users should find that the models used in this book will help to provide useful templates for exploiting the techniques that are used.

This anthology provides readers with a flavour of the development of cost accounting and emerging management accounting literature from 'The Costing Renaissance' to 1952. Many of the issues which were prominent in the middle of the twentieth century are still pressing issues today and received important early treatments. However, a more balanced longitudinal coverage of the relevant material enables readers to trace the development of new attitudes to problems which had been recognized early on and to become aware of the fact that different issues tended to dominate the literature as time went by. The selection bias has favoured material which was covered for the first time or in a new way.

The fourteen papers in this volume, both unpublished and originally published between 1981 and 1990 offer a comprehensive selection of G. H. Lawson's work and discuss the following: assessing economic performance ownership value creation pricing of non-competitive government contracts valuation of a business measurement of corporate performance according to cash flow.

This anthology provides readers with a flavour of the development of cost accounting and emerging management accounting literature from 'The Costing Renaissance' to 1952. Many of the issues which were prominent in the middle of the twentieth century are still pressing issues today and received important early treatments. However, a more balanced longitudinal coverage of the relevant material enables readers to trace the development of new attitudes to problems which had been recognized early on and to become aware of the fact that different issues tended to dominate the literature as time went by. The selection bias has favoured material which was covered for the first time or in a new way.

Addressing the chronic underestimation of capital and operating costs in urban transportation projects, this book provides a detailed analysis of the cost estimating process using case studies from three U.S. cities and outlines a practical framework for this process. The work goes beyond a simple quantitative approach to explaining cost underestimation and looks at the planning process as a tool for both argumentation and structuring the argumentation. This approach highlights the difficulties in several components of the estimating process and suggests specific and practical actions to address these problems. The proposed framework will strengthen the estimating function and the link between analysis and decision in urban transportation planning. This work will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in transportation planning, urban planning, and transportation engineering.

Philipp Plank analyses the question, what drives the quality of cost-systems and is the quality of cost-systems directly and at best positively related to the firms' performance. In other words, is it worth investing in complex cost allocation systems or are there environmental and/or production settings in which less enhanced systems perform adequately. Using simulations, a benchmark firm (first-best solution) perfectly allocating cost to products is compared to firms implementing heuristic cost-allocation schemes (second-best solution) to identify the profit gap resulting from decisions based on limited information. Into this discussion, the idea of cost-stickiness is integrated, thereby indicating a new planning approach.

With easy-to-understand explanations and real-life examples, Management & Cost Accounting For Dummies provides students and trainees with the basic concepts, terminology and methods to identify, measure, analyse, interpret, and communicate accounting information in the context of managerial decision-making.

Major topics include: * cost behaviour * cost analysis * profit planning and control measures * accounting for decentralized operations * budgeting decisions * ethical challenges in management and cost accounting

The book introduces pragmatic constructivism as a paradigm for understanding actors' construction of functioning practice and for developing methods and concepts for managing and observing that practice. The book explores, understands and theorises organisational practices as constructed through the activities of all organisational actors. Actors always act under presumptions of a specific actor-world-relation which they continuously construct, adjust and reconstruct in light of new experiences, contexts and communication. The outcome of the actor-world-relation is a reality construction. The reality construction may function successfully or it may be hampered by fictitious and illusionary elements, due to missing or faulty actor-world relations. The thesis is that four dimensions of reality - facts, possibilities, values and communication - must be integrated in the actor-world-relation if the construct is to form a successful basis for effective, functioning actions. Drawing on pragmatic constructivism, the book provides concepts and ideas for studies regarding actors and their use of management accounting models in their construction of organized reality. It concentrates on researching and conceptualizing what creates functioning reality construction. It develops concept and methods for understanding, analysing and managing the actors' reality constructions. It is intended for people who do research on or work actively with developing management accounting.

Although there are numerous books on alternative accounting methods, such as Lean accounting, none focus on the impact of time and how accounting practices can be modified to acknowledge the power of time. This book addresses this need. The Monetary Value of Time: Why Traditional Accounting Systems Make Customers Wait presents a framework for assessing the value of time in terms of organizational strategy and competitive advantage. The framework presented will enable organizations to develop consistent measures and ensure that their cost accounting system isn't motivating behaviors that add to lead time and make customers wait. The framework outlined in this book is relevant to the managerial and cost accounting practices in today's manufacturing environment, which is increasingly moving away from mass production to custom manufacturing. The framework is supported by high-level metrics, which are reinforced by operational metrics. This is supported by accounting data that recognize the value of time. Pricing models that incorporate the concept of time are presented. The book provides many examples of how the use of standard costing and traditional accounting practices in a high-mix/low-volume production environment can produce contradictory or even inaccurate results that form the basis for poor decisions that may actually move your organization farther from its objectives. The book arms readers with options for overcoming traditional barriers by applying direct costs at an item level, while applying overheads at a macro or value stream level. For example, while GAAP requires overhead application for inventory valuation, a common misconception is that overhead must be applied at an item level. In fact, overhead can be absorbed by one journal entry. Demonstrating the linkages between time-based accounting data and meaningful business metrics that drive bottom line results, the book presents methods and metrics that have been successfully applied by the author in manufacturing environments.

Included in this 'pack' version of the product is the book Management and Cost Accounting plus access to MyLab Accounting. This bestseller text offers clear, simple to understand and comprehensive coverage of management and cost accounting for students and professionals. Packed with illustrations, examples and real-life applications, Management and Cost Accounting brings together techniques, concepts and practices in a highly readable way. Keeping its international focus, the text includes a wealth of case studies featuring companies from around the world, and includes up-to-date coverage of AI and robotics and other technology which affects management accounting. Applications are explained using illustrations from real corporations, plus the text includes professional accountancy examination questions to help you practice. This book will help you learn about the aspects of management accounting that are essential in your study and your future performance in the workplace. Key Features Up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, 3-D printing, the Internet of Things, and Big Data analytics. Expanded and revised sections on strategic management accounting, the balanced scorecard, quality costing, governance and sustainability, as well as aspects of internet entrepreneurship. A wealth of resources including professional accountancy practice exercises and end-of-chapter questions providing opportunities to learn and develop exam agility. Harvard Business School and other cutting edge case studies that illustrate how management accounting is deployed in enterprises across locations and situations. A range of new Concepts in Action boxes and the latest Surveys of Corporate Practices showing how accounting techniques are used by managers in the business world. Alnoor Bhimani is Professor of Management Accounting and previous Head of LSE's Department of Accounting and Director of Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Charles T. Horngren was the Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Accounting at Stanford University. Srikant M. Datar is the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration and Faculty Chair of the Harvard Innovation Lab at Harvard Business School. Madhav V. Rajan is the Dean of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.

This text is adapted from Drury's Management and Cost Accounting, and is tailored to the needs of a one-year course. It should be of interest to professional and undergraduate students taking a first course in costing, cost management, management accounting or cost and management accounting.

The OHP Masters are essential support material for all lecturers adopting the main text.

This book is one of the few English language texts devoted to the subject of quality costing. The material is based on research work carried out by the authors at the Manchester School of Managememt, UMIST, over the last nine years or so. The research has been mainly in manufac turing organizations but work has also been conducted in non-manufac turing concerns (e. g. marketing and service operations, and commerce). The book will provide managers with sound practical advice on how to define, collect, analyse, report and use quality costs. The text covers all the main aspects of quality costing and an attempt has been made to structure the book in the sequence by which organizations should set about a quality costing exercise. The book opens by examining the background of quality costing. This is followed by chapters on definitions of quality costs, collection of quality costs, analysis and reporting of quality costs, and the uses of quality costs. Examples from manufacturing organizations and non manufacturing situations are used throughout the first five chapters to illustrate the key points discussed in the text. The next four chapters are case studies which provide considerable detail on quality costing in companies from the mechanical and electronics industries. To preserve anonymity the companies are not referred to by name.

The Routledge Companion to Accounting History presents a single-volume synthesis of research in this expanding field, exploring and analysing accounting from ancient civilisations to the modern day. No longer perceived as the narrow study of how a mysterious technique was used in past, the scope of accounting history has widened substantially. This revised and updated volume moves beyond the history of accounting technologies, accounting theories and practices and the accountants who applied them. Expert contributors from around the world explore the interfaces between accounting and the economy, society, culture and the polity. Accounting history is shown to offer important insights into such disparate phenomena as the evolution of capitalism, control of labour, gender and family relationships, racial exploitation, the operation of religious organisations, and the functioning of the state. Illuminating the foundation and development of accounting systems, this updated, classic book opens the field to a new generation of accounting scholars and historians around the world.

Risk, Opportunity, Uncertainty and Other Random Models (Volume V in the Working Guides to Estimating and Forecasting series) goes part way to debunking the myth that research and development cost are somewhat random, as under certain conditions they can be observed to follow a pattern of behaviour referred to as a Norden-Rayleigh Curve, which unfortunately has to be truncated to stop the myth from becoming a reality! However, there is a practical alternative in relation to a particular form of PERT-Beta Curve. However, the major emphasis of this volume is the use of Monte Carlo Simulation as a general technique for narrowing down potential outcomes of multiple interacting variables or cost drivers. Perhaps the most common of these in the evaluation of Risk, Opportunity and Uncertainty. The trouble is that many Monte Carlo Simulation tools are 'black boxes' and too few estimators and forecasters really appreciate what is happening inside the 'black box'. This volume aims to resolve that and offers tips into things that might need to be considered to remove some of the uninformed random input that often creates a misinformed misconception of 'it must be right!' Monte Carlo Simulation can be used to model variable determine Critical Paths in a schedule, and is key to modelling Waiting Times and cues with random arisings. Supported by a wealth of figures and tables, this is a valuable resource for estimators, engineers, accountants, project risk specialists as well as students of cost engineering.

Cost-Benefit Analysis provides accessible, comprehensive, authoritative, and practical treatments of the protocols for assessing the relative efficiency of public policies. Its review of essential concepts from microeconomics, and its sophisticated treatment of important topics with minimal use of mathematics helps students from a variety of backgrounds build solid conceptual foundations. It provides thorough treatments of time discounting, dealing with contingent uncertainty using expected surpluses and option prices, taking account of parameter uncertainties using Monte Carlo simulation and other types of sensitivity analyses, revealed preference approaches, stated preference methods including contingent valuation, and other related methods. Updated to cover contemporary research, this edition is considerably reorganized to aid in student and practitioner understanding, and includes eight new cases to demonstrate the actual practice of cost-benefit analysis. Widely cited, it is recognized as an authoritative source on cost-benefit analysis. Illustrations, exhibits, chapter exercises, and case studies help students master concepts and develop craft skills.