Modeling Project’s Scope for Conceptual Cost Estimating

Abstract

The availability of a comprehensive and reliable definition of the scope of a project
in its early planning stages is widely recognized by practitioners as a key factor for conceptual
cost estimating. In this article, a project scope modeling methodology, based on the effective reutilization
of historical projects’ scopes, and on the application of the case-based reasoning approach
(CBR), is proposed. This methodology helps to develop a new project’s scope by finding
and reusing the most relevant information from historical scopes. The validation of the proposed
methodology was carried out through its use in estimating the cost of 17 real construction projects,
already constructed, and whose final costs were known. This application of the methodology
produced a sufficiently detailed and accurate cost estimate for each project. Also, the scope generated
by the methodology allows the estimation of the cost of a new project with an acceptable
level of accuracy, and provides a reasonable work breakdown structure that can be used for different
planning purposes.