Learning Engineering Practice

Chapter 16

Estimating costs

Engineering is expensive. Engineers can quickly gain respect for accurate cost estimation and the ability to perform and coordinate work effectively within allocated budget and time allowances. Learn from an experienced estimator in your industry as soon as you can.

While estimating is an engineering function, setting the price is a sales and marketing issue. The price of a product or solution often reflects an assessment of customers’ willingness to pay: the exchange-value. Therefore, the price may be quite different from the estimated cost; the price should normally be higher than the cost for financial success. Sometimes, however, the firm will accept a lower price to secure the work in the belief that doing so ...