Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book chronicles the spectacular growth of a newborn: computer-organized cost engineering, an old profession fertilized with a new technology. Suddenly the envelope of the possible is redrawn. Dormant opportunities are awakened. More is asked of the cost engineer; more is dependent upon him or her. Cost engineers, before the computer, simply ignored the true complexity of their profession because they could do nothing about it. They also largely avoided the uncertainty inherent in predicting the future (future cost or schedule) and resorted to deterministic, sometimes arbitrary, formulas.