Cost Estimating Worksheet

1. Summary
This document describes a template for a bottom-up project cost estimation worksheet based
on a project WBS having disciplines as basic elements.

2. Description
The worksheet is based on WBS elements commonly adopted on the development of new
products in the electromechanical industry involving HW and SW development, qualification,
integration of new components into a system, development of system configuration rules,
training and industrialization.
The product requirements are basically described by new features, but interface, performance
or lifetime requirements can also be used. Each row of the worksheet is related to a product
requirement, whereas the columns represent the disciplines.
The worksheet is split into internal work cost and external cost, but other classifications can be
used depending on the particular industry segment.

2.1.

Internal work cost

Each cell shall be filled, for each applicable discipline, with the estimated work cost to develop
and complete the WBS deliverables related to the new feature. This value is calculated by
multiplying the estimated effort (M x h) by the hourly rate (e.g. USD/h) of the involved teams.
For convenience, the cost of the work that is common to the development of different features
can be estimated on separate rows.

2.2.

External costs

These are typically costs of activities developed outside the company and not related to internal
effort, like development by a third-party supplier, purchased material for prototypes, trips, cost of
external certification, etc.

2.3.

Total cost per feature

Adding up the content of the cells in a row will result on the estimated project cost per feature.
This is especially useful when due to budget or resource constraints project managers are
asked to provide data to support prioritization based on the most important features.

2.4.

Total cost per discipline

Adding up the contents of the cells in a column will result on the estimated total cost per
discipline, which can be useful when dimensioning the teams, defining the total cost with
external suppliers, material and trips.

Features

Feature 1
Feature 2

Feature n
Common 1
Common 2

Common m
Total cost
per discipline
Others

Trips

Internal work costs ( M x h x hourly rate)

Material

3rd party
Development

Others

Training

Industrialization

Configuration

Integration
Tests

Component
Tests

SW
Development

PCB
Development

Electromechanical
Development

SW
Specifications

HW
Specifications

Test
Design

Requirements
Specification

Project
Management

3. Cost Estimation Worksheet

External costs

Total cost
per feature