ABSTRACT
Surveying the tools of the cost engineering trade, their host implements, and the procedures which run them, it is now for us to turn to the underlying concepts and principles. Principles rarely solve an acute problem. They prime the procedures which move the tools. They guide the solution apparatus. If a piece of cost data comes within a package that features a great deal of cost information, then the package in its entirety may be worth keeping. If the same contents come as bits and pieces, it may not be worth keeping any of it. Human history is intimately linked to this seemingly esoteric question: how to represent data. Our early ancestors represented data in drawings on cave walls. It is thrilling experience to read what they so many generations ago, left for us to decipher.
