ManagementProject ManagementCost ManagementEarned Value ManagementForecastingCost EstimationCost ForecastingEarned ValueEstimate At CompletionProject Cost ManagementProject ValuationAccuracyBottom-up Estimate At CompletionContractor EstimatingEstimate At Completion ValidationHistorical Data Based Estimate At CompletionIndependent Estimate At CompletionProject Cost ForecastingRegression-based Estimate At Completion
The calculation of the Independent Estimate at Completion (IEAC) is significant to project management. It is a quick method facilitated by using Earned Value Management to predict the final project cost. Project managers (PM) and cost analysts often use IEAC to validate the bottoms-up forecast made by contract sources. When the IEAC result is substantially different from the contractor’s estimate, more than likely the PM will question the discrepancy. The PMs also use the IEAC to justify continuation of the project to upper management. Thus, you can see IEAC has far reaching implications. During the last 10 years, primarily due to the interest generated from the cancellation of the Navy’s A-12 Avenger acquisition program, studies of the predictive accuracy of the various methods for calculating IEAC have been made. These studies considered and included several IEAC formulas and regression calculation methods. In general, no single specific method has been shown to be superior. Although no particular method provided accurate results for all periods or phases of a project, some fundamental characteristics were observed. With the establishment of these characteristics, the application of some of the IEAC formulas and calculation methods appears to be questionable. However, these fundamentals have provided inspiration for proposing new IEAC methods in this article.