What most progressive companies are doing is to match the estimating process to their toll gates or phase gates. In the oil and gas sector, this is known as the Value Assurance Process (VAP) and was developed by IPA as a proprietary system for Exxon, and it has since been adopted by nearly all organizations where projects are funded by the CAPEX process.

If we look to the more technically advanced Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering http://www.aacei.org or the American Society of Professional Estimators http://www.aspenational.org/, they are using a 5 and 6 phase model. If you prefer non-American “best practices”, the UK Association of Cost Engineers recommends a 4 gate process while the Norwegian Project Management Association recommends a 6 estimate process.

Bottom line- professionally, I believe PMI is remiss in recommending only three estimates. As cost control and cost management become increasingly important given the evolving financial crisis, I would urge you to consider your advice and instead of adopting practices “used on most projects, most of the time”, that we start to move beyond PMI’s rather simplistic approach and adopt “best ” or at least “recommended” practices, as espoused by other organizations.

BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta