Cost estimation of architect and engineer contracts

Abstract

Architectural and Engineering firms are selected for government projects via a technical competition method with a fair and reasonable fee determined through negotiations The criteria for what is fair and reasonable is the government estimate. There is a limited guidance available on the preparation of estimates for A&E contracts. Additionally, there is limited use of empirical information due to the lack of an organized database. This research defined the cost estimation method as a decision process and supported that process with numerous analytical computations, statistical techniques, and regression cost models derived from a database comprised of previous A&E contract awards. This approach was effective in that estimates were generated which more closely represented negotiated fees.