ABSTRACT
Cost engineering is a two-way window. Looking through this window the business community relates to science and technology. Looking the other way, scientists and engineers hear and see what business wants and does. Cost estimation is the centerpiece of cost engineering. There are so many reasons costs will change, and prices will vary, that the life of a cost estimator is never too cozy. Unlike the design engineer, who deals with laws of nature-never finicky, constant, or reliable-the elements that the estimator manipulates are as dependable as the weather, as constant as a shoreline, and as avoidable as taxes. An estimator will record a cost figure and assume that history will replay itself in the future. Factor estimation is the common name for those “quick and dirty” conceptual cost statements. The conceptual estimate is the first cost statement; the fully definitive estimate is the last.
