Non-Subscriber Extract
US DoD rebuts criticism of programme cost estimation
By Gerrard Cowan
29 April 2008
The US Department of Defense (DoD) has responded to criticism that it could take a more scientific approach to estimating programme costs by arguing that it performs “parametric analysis of most defence programmes - a detailed analysis including what effect current resourcing trends have on future defence budgets”.
The comments from a DoD spokesman came in response to a 25 April Jane’s report of remarks by Mike Gilmore, the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO’s) assistant director for national security, who said that the DoD’s independent cost estimating group - the Cost Analysis Improvement Group - which uses parametric cost-growth estimating based on historical data, does “a much better job of projecting what costs will actually be, although they are also usually low”.