In today's hypercompetitive global marketplace, accurate cost estimating is crucial to bottom-line results. Nowhere is this more evident than in the design and development of new products and services. Among managing engineers responsible for developing realistic cost estimates for new product designs, the number-one source of information and guidance has been the Cost Estimator's Reference Manual.

Comprehensive, authoritative, and practical, the Manual instructs readers in the full range of cost estimating techniques and procedures currently used in the fields of development, testing, manufacturing, production, construction, software, general services, government contracting, engineering services, scientific projects, and proposal preparation. The authors clearly explain how to go about gathering the data essential to preparing a realistic estimate of costs and guide the reader step by step through each procedure.

This new Second Edition incorporates a decade of progress in the methods, procedures, and strategies of cost estimating. All the material has been updated and five new chapters have been added to reflect the most recent information on such increasingly important topics as activity-based costing, software estimating, design-to-cost techniques, and cost implications of new concurrent engineering and systems engineering approaches to projects.

Indispensable to virtually anyone whose work requires accurate cost estimates, the Cost Estimator's Reference Manual will be especially valuable to engineers, estimators, accountants, and contractors of products, projects, processes, and services to both government and industry.

The essential ready-reference for the techniques, methods, and procedures of cost estimating

COST ESTIMATOR'S REFERENCE MANUAL Second Edition

Indispensable for anyone who depends on accurate cost estimates for engineering projects, the Cost Estimator's Reference Manual guides the user through both the basic and more sophisticated aspects of the estimating process. Authoritative and comprehensive, the Manual seamlessly integrates the many functions—accounting, financial, statistical, and management—of modern cost estimating practice. Its broad coverage includes estimating procedures applied to such areas as:

• Production
• Software
• Development
• General services
• Testing
• Government contracting
• Manufacturing
• Engineering
• Proposal preparation
• Scientific projects
• Construction

This updated and expanded Second Edition incorporates all the most important recent developments in cost estimating, such as activity-based costing, software estimating, design-to-cost techniques, computer-aided estimating tools, concurrent engineering, and life cycle costing.

For engineers, estimators, accountants, planners, and others who are involved in the cost aspects of projects, the Cost Estimator's Reference Manual is an invaluable information source that will pay for itself many times over.

This is a ``must-have'' for anyone who desires to effectively and successfully sell their products, projects, ideas or services. The new edition has been revised and expanded to include detailed coverage of the current methods and procedures required by the government and used by commercial companies for bid preparation; the latest applications for identifying and tracking fund sources; new desktop publishing techniques for rapid proposal preparation along with available software; and storyboarding methods. The concept of ``straight-line'' control is presented for the first time and a complete case study provided to illustrate how to evolve a proposal from development through strategic marketing planning.