PRICE Systems
Encyclopedia
PRICE Systems was founded in 1975 as a business within the RCA Corporation. It is generally acknowledged as the earliest developer of parametric
cost estimation software
.
PRICE Systems’ cost estimating software was first developed in the 1970s when RCA's Frank Freiman created the Programmed Review of Information for Costing and Evaluation (PRICE). PRICE related the basic costs of engineering
and production
to parameters that included a specification profile of units to be built, amount of work
to be performed, the allowed schedule
and resources available. It relied on the use of parametric relationships obtained through curve-fitting procedures
that had been performed on a historical repository of significant cost data.
Originally a division of RCA and later a strategic business unit of Lockheed Martin
, PRICE Systems is considered the pioneer in the science of parametric modeling because the PRICE parametric models were the first generally-available computerized cost estimation software. PRICE became an independent, privately held company in 1998.
systems
1975 Frank Freiman founds PRICE Systems as part of RCA
1986 GE
acquires RCA; RCA PRICE Systems becomes GE PRICE Systems
1992 Martin Marietta
acquires GE Aerospace; GE PRICE Systems becomes Martin Marietta PRICE Systems
1995 Lockheed Corporation
merges with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin; PRICE Systems becomes a division of Lockheed Martin
1998 Management buyout
from Lockheed Martin; PRICE Systems LLC formed as independent company
Cost Model, one of the oldest and most widely used software parametric models for large-scale software development projects. In 1983 the company launched its first application for microcircuit
cost modelling.
TruePlanning
In 2003 PRICE released TruePlanning, a proprietary parametric model that estimates the scope, cost, effort, and schedule for software projects. Parametric estimating models are mathematical models containing cost estimating relationships (CERs) developed through data collection
and regression analysis
. The TruePlanning Software model provides activity-based parametric models to aid in the estimation of new software development, integrations of Commercial Off-the-Shelf
(COTS) Software and life cycle
maintenance
costs.
Today, TruePlanning is used to estimate the costs, schedule, effort, and benefits for:
for customers in the aerospace
, defense
, government
, civilian, and commercial
sectors. Led by chief scientist Arlene Minkiewicz
, the PRICE Research team has been awarded patents
, served as expert witnesses
, won awards for cutting-edge research, spoken at educational institutions and industry conferences, published technical articles for periodicals and text books, and served on important oversight
committees.
Software parametric models
A parametric model is a set of related mathematical equations which incorporates variable parameters. A scenario is defined by selecting a value for each parameter...
cost estimation software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
.
PRICE Systems’ cost estimating software was first developed in the 1970s when RCA's Frank Freiman created the Programmed Review of Information for Costing and Evaluation (PRICE). PRICE related the basic costs of engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
and production
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
to parameters that included a specification profile of units to be built, amount of work
Work (project management)
Work or Work Package in project management is the amount of effort applied to produce a deliverable or to accomplish a task or a group of related tasks defined at the same level in the WBS....
to be performed, the allowed schedule
Schedule (project management)
In project management, a schedule consists of a list of a project's terminal elements with intended start and finish dates. Terminal elements are the lowest element in a schedule, which is not further subdivided...
and resources available. It relied on the use of parametric relationships obtained through curve-fitting procedures
Curve fitting
Curve fitting is the process of constructing a curve, or mathematical function, that has the best fit to a series of data points, possibly subject to constraints. Curve fitting can involve either interpolation, where an exact fit to the data is required, or smoothing, in which a "smooth" function...
that had been performed on a historical repository of significant cost data.
Originally a division of RCA and later a strategic business unit of Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, PRICE Systems is considered the pioneer in the science of parametric modeling because the PRICE parametric models were the first generally-available computerized cost estimation software. PRICE became an independent, privately held company in 1998.
Chronology
1969 RCA's Frank Freiman invents parametric cost modeling for estimating acquisition and development of hardwareComputer hardware
Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...
systems
1975 Frank Freiman founds PRICE Systems as part of RCA
1986 GE
Gê
Gê are the people who spoke Ge languages of the northern South American Caribbean coast and Brazil. In Brazil the Gê were found in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Piaui, Mato Grosso, Goias, Tocantins, Maranhão, and as far south as Paraguay....
acquires RCA; RCA PRICE Systems becomes GE PRICE Systems
1992 Martin Marietta
Martin Marietta
Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of The Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. The combined company became a leader in chemicals, aerospace, and electronics. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. The...
acquires GE Aerospace; GE PRICE Systems becomes Martin Marietta PRICE Systems
1995 Lockheed Corporation
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace company. Lockheed was founded in 1912 and later merged with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin in 1995.-Origins:...
merges with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin; PRICE Systems becomes a division of Lockheed Martin
1998 Management buyout
Management buyout
A management buyout is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.- Overview :Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company...
from Lockheed Martin; PRICE Systems LLC formed as independent company
Technology
In 1976 PRICE introduced its Hardware Life-Cycle Cost Model. This was followed in 1977 by a Software DevelopmentSoftware development
Software development is the development of a software product...
Cost Model, one of the oldest and most widely used software parametric models for large-scale software development projects. In 1983 the company launched its first application for microcircuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
cost modelling.
TruePlanning
In 2003 PRICE released TruePlanning, a proprietary parametric model that estimates the scope, cost, effort, and schedule for software projects. Parametric estimating models are mathematical models containing cost estimating relationships (CERs) developed through data collection
Data collection
Data collection is a term used to describe a process of preparing and collecting data, for example, as part of a process improvement or similar project. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, to pass information on to...
and regression analysis
Regression analysis
In statistics, regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables...
. The TruePlanning Software model provides activity-based parametric models to aid in the estimation of new software development, integrations of Commercial Off-the-Shelf
Commercial off-the-shelf
In the United States, Commercially available Off-The-Shelf is a Federal Acquisition Regulation term defining a nondevelopmental item of supply that is both commercial and sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, and that can be procured or utilized under government contract...
(COTS) Software and life cycle
Systems Development Life Cycle
The systems development life cycle , or software development life cycle in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, is a process of creating or altering information systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems.In software engineering...
maintenance
Software maintenance
Software Maintenance in software engineering is the modification of a software product after delivery to correct faults, to improve performance or other attributes....
costs.
Today, TruePlanning is used to estimate the costs, schedule, effort, and benefits for:
- Hardware Life Cycle programs (mechanical and electronic)/
- Software projects/
- ITInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
Projects/ - System of SystemsSystem of systemsSystem of systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and performance than simply the sum of the constituent systems...
configurations
PRICE Research
Since its inception, PRICE has worked in the area of cost research. Its network of cost experts develop cost models and knowledge basesKnowledge base
A knowledge base is a special kind of database for knowledge management. A Knowledge Base provides a means for information to be collected, organised, shared, searched and utilised.-Types:...
for customers in the aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
, defense
Defense (military)
Defense has several uses in the sphere of military application.Personal defense implies measures taken by individual soldiers in protecting themselves whether by use of protective materials such as armor, or field construction of trenches or a bunker, or by using weapons that prevent the enemy...
, government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, civilian, and commercial
Commercial software
Commercial software, or less commonly, payware, is computer software that is produced for sale or that serves commercial purposes.Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software packages may also be commercial software....
sectors. Led by chief scientist Arlene Minkiewicz
Arlene Minkiewicz
Arlene F. Minkiewicz is the Chief Scientist at PRICE Systems, a company generally acknowledged as the earliest developer of parametric cost estimation software.She leads the cost research activity for the entire suite of cost estimating products that PRICE develops and maintains...
, the PRICE Research team has been awarded patents
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
, served as expert witnesses
Expert witness
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...
, won awards for cutting-edge research, spoken at educational institutions and industry conferences, published technical articles for periodicals and text books, and served on important oversight
Regulation
Regulation is administrative legislation that constitutes or constrains rights and allocates responsibilities. It can be distinguished from primary legislation on the one hand and judge-made law on the other...
committees.
Customers
- DODUnited States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
Program Office/ - BAE SystemsBAE SystemsBAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
/ - BoeingBoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
NA/ - Eurocopter/
- Future Artillery System/
- Gulfstream AerospaceGulfstream AerospaceGulfstream Aerospace Corporation is a producer of several models of jet aircraft. Gulfstream has been a unit of General Dynamics since 1999.The company has produced more than 1,500 aircraft for corporate, government, private, and military customers around the world...
/ - NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
/ - US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)Naval Air Systems CommandThe Naval Air Systems Command provides material support for aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. NAVAIR was established in 1966 as the successor to the Navy's Bureau of Naval Weapons . Current Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, is Vice Adm. David Architzel since May...
/ - Penn StatePennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...
Applied Research Laboratories (ARL)/ - Sikorsky AircraftSikorsky AircraftThe Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. Its parent company is United Technologies Corporation.-History:...
/ - United Technologies CorporationUnited Technologies CorporationUnited Technologies Corporation is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in the United Technologies Building in Hartford, Connecticut...