The new Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge-Software (CEBoK-S) will be making its debut soon!
ICEAA has been hard at work creating a new Software Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (CEBoK-S) that is expected to be officially released in the coming months.
All nine CEBoK-S lessons were instructed at the 2021 Training Summit by internationally renowned experts in software sizing and estimating.
CEBoK-S assumes fundamental knowledge of cost estimating and analysis methods and concepts that are covered in ICEAA’s Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge, or CEBoK®. Anyone interested in pursuing a CEBoK-S certification will need to have a thorough understanding of the 16 CEBoK® modules that were presented at the 2021 Training Summit.
CEBoK-S is being developed to appeal to a broad international audience and be applicable to software cost estimators globally, including individuals from a variety of organization types, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs); prime contractors & subcontractors for defense, intelligence and civil agency projects; consulting firms; commercial organizations; commercial IT companies; IT departments of banks, insurance companies, etc.; government and quasi-government organizations; and academic institutions.
ICEAA has partnered with the U.S. Defense Acquisition University (DAU) to use their existing course materials, known as BCF-250: Software Cost Estimating, as one of the foundations for CEBoK-S. Additional content will be derived from the software cost estimating training modules that were developed by a coordinated effort between ICEAA, Nesma, IFPUG, and other organizations between 2015 and 2019, and other relevant sources.
CEBoK-S is intended to::
- Appeal to the broad audience outlined above, with particular attention given to ensuring the content is independent and unbiased towards or focused on any particular country or governmental agency; and,
- Provide the user, whose background and expertise is based in cost estimating and analysis, with an understanding of software estimating that will complement and enhance their cost estimates and analyses.
CEBoK-S will NOT:
- Endorse any method of software sizing as superior or inferior to another. Any references to software sizing methods will be objective, presented factually to enable the audience members to draw their own conclusions about the situational merits of any given method;
- Introduce the basic concepts of cost estimating to an unfamiliar audience; (it WILL extend the concepts addressed in CEBoK® to software cost estimating); or
- Prescribe, but rather provide guidance for essential considerations in software cost estimating
ICEAA has formed the ICEAA CEBoK-S Review Group (ISRG), to provide feedback, insights, constructive criticism, and input to the ongoing review and direction to CEBoK-S development. Lead by Carol Dekkers of Quality Plus Technologies, Inc., the ISRG is a specifically chosen group of ICEAA members with subject matter expertise in software cost estimating that represent a cross-section of industries, nationalities, and specialties:
Rick Collins – ICEAA Board of Directors
Kevin Cincotta – ICEAA Certification Principal
Daniel B. French – Cobec Consulting, Inc.
Arlene Minkiewicz – PRICE Systems, LLC
Denise Nelson – The Boeing Company
Sanathanan Rajagopal – QinetiQ, Ltd and SCAF
Kellie Wutzke – ICEAA Board of Directors
Christian Smart – Galorath Federal
Eric van der Vliet – CGI
Harold van Heeringen – Nesma
Megan Jones – ICEAA Executive Director (ex-officio member)