A cost estimate for a project such as the acquisition of a new aircraft or satellite system carries with it an inherent probability that the actual cost will exceed the estimate-that changes in requirements, technology, the economic environment, and a multitude of other factors that may occur over the life of the project will change the final cost. One major approach to cost risk analysis-the evaluating and quantifying of the uncertainty of a cost estimate-has been probabilistic: expressing the uncertainty in a cost estimate as a probability distribution over a range of potential costs. Cost analysts in industry and government and researchers in statistics and management have often proposed that, to get probability distributions for platforms using new and untried technologies, expert judgment should be tapped and subjective probability distributions elicited from the experts to represent cost uncertainty. This technical report reviews procedures for eliciting subjective probability distributions in cost risk analysis, both in the cost risk field and in other disciplines in which elicitation has been a topic of research-primarily, statistics and psychology. Because of a lack of empirical work in elicitation, especially in cost risk, the author also interviewed a number of senior people in the cost risk community, who gave insight into the practices of the field. This report should be of interest to cost analysis professionals who wish to quantify uncertainty when using expert opinions in cost risk analysis.

The rise of the information age and the digital economy has dramatically changed engineering and other technology-driven fields. With tremendous advances in computing and communication systems, major organizational upheavals, all fueled by complexity, globalization, short cycle times, and lean supply chains, the functions of engineers have significantly changed. Engineers and similar professionals must be technically savvy and have product management and costing skills all while working in a distributed and often unstable environment. This new-edition textbook is updated to cover the integration of cost, risk, value, scheduling, and informationtechnologies going beyond basic engineering economics. Engineering Economics of Life Cycle Cost Analysis, Second Edition, offers a systems and life cycle or total ownership cost perspective. It presents advanced costing techniques such as simulation-based costing, decision and risk analysis, complex systemscosting, software, big data, and cloud computing estimation. Examples and problems demonstrating these techniques with real-world applications are also included. All engineers and similar professionals will find this book useful, but it is mainly written for systems engineers, engineering managers, program/product managers, and industrial engineers. The text can serve as a professional reference or for use with graduate courses on advanced engineering economic analysis and cost management, and financial analysis for engineers.

Brick and Block Masonry - Trends, Innovations and Challenges contains the lectures and regular papers presented at the 16th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference (Padova, Italy, 26-30 June 2016). In an ever-changing world, in which innovations are rapidly implemented but soon surpassed, the challenge for masonry, the oldest and most traditional building material, is that it can address the increasingly pressing requirements of quality of living, safety, and sustainability. This abstracts volume and full paper USB device, focusing on challenges, innovations, trends and ideas related to masonry, in both research and building practice, will proof to be a valuable source of information for researchers and practitioners, masonry industries and building management authorities, construction professionals and educators.

Winner of the 2017 De Groot Prize awarded by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)A relatively new area of research, adversarial risk analysis (ARA) informs decision making when there are intelligent opponents and uncertain outcomes. Adversarial Risk Analysis develops methods for allocating defensive or offensive resources against

DECISION MAKING IN SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT A thoroughly updated overview of systems engineering management and decision making In the newly revised third edition of Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management, the authors deliver a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the systems decision process, systems thinking, and qualitative and quantitative multi-criteria value modeling directly supporting decision making throughout the system lifecycle. This book offers readers major new updates that cover recently developed system modeling and analysis techniques and quantitative and qualitative approaches in the field, including effective techniques for addressing uncertainty. In addition to Excel, six new open-source software applications have been added to illustrate key topics, including SIPmath Modeler Tools, Cambridge Advanced Modeller, SystemiTool2.0, and Gephi 0.9.2. The authors have reshaped the book’s organization and presentation to better support educators engaged in remote learning. New appendices have been added to present extensions for a new realization analysis technique and getting started steps for each of the major software applications. Updated illustrative examples support modern system decision making skills and highlight applications in hardware, organizations, policy, logistic supply chains, and architecture. Readers will also find: Thorough introductions to working with systems, the systems engineering perspective, and systems thinking In-depth presentations of applied systems thinking, including holism, element dependencies, expansive and contractive thinking, and concepts of structure, classification, and boundaries Comprehensive explorations of system representations leading to analysis In-depth discussions of supporting system decisions, including the system decision process (SDP), tradespace methods, multi-criteria value modeling, working with stakeholders, and the system environment Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students studying systems engineering and systems engineering management, Decision Making in Systems Engineering and Management will also earn a place in the libraries of practicing system engineers and researchers with an interest in the topic.

The work is a context-oriented analysis and synthesis of complex engineered systems to ensure continuous and safe operations under conditions of uncertainty. The book is divided in four parts, the first one comprises an overview of the development of systems engineering: starting with basics of Systems Science and Single Systems Engineering, through System of Systems Engineering to Cognitive Systems Engineering. The Cognitive Systems Engineering model was based on the concept of imperfect knowledge acquisition and management. The second part shows the evolutionary character of the dependability concept over the last fifty years. Beginning from simple models based on the classical probability theory, through the concepts of tolerating faults, as well as resilience engineering, we come to the assumptions of Cognitive Dependability Engineering (CDE), based on the concept of continuous smart operation, both under normal and abnormal conditions. The subject of the next part is analysis and synthesis of Cyber-Physical-Social (CPS) Systems. The methodology consists of the following steps: modeling CPS systems' structure, simulating their behavior in changing conditions and in situations of disruptions, and finally assessing the dependability of the entire system based on CDE. The last part of the work answers the question of how to deal with risks in CPS systems in situations of high level of uncertainty. The concept of a Cognitive Digital Twin was introduced to support the process of solving complex problems by experts, and on this basis a framework for cognitive dependability based problemsolving in CPS Systems operating under deep uncertainty was developed. The possibilities and purposefulness of using this framework have been demonstrated with three practical examples of disasters that have happened in the past and have been thoroughly analyzed.

A careful blend of theory and practice, this book presents a comprehensive approach to assessing the impact of unplanned events on the cost of engineering complex systems. It illustrates how probability theory is applied to model, measure, and manage risk in the cost of a systems engineering project. The book contains numerous mathematical and professional anecdotes, case studies, results, observations, and interpretations that clarify the challenges in cost risk analysis. It includes references, equations, and illustrations, provides theoretical and applied exercises, and uses examples and case discussions derived from systems engineering projects to describe key concepts.