A prototype system for the prediction of final cost in construction projects

Civil engineering projects include several uncertainties and risks, due to the special characteristics of construction industry. Time and cost are two parameters that could potentially lead to successful and conforming to regulations production of projects. It is imperative to estimate correctly the development and the final outcome of these parameters. Various tools have been applied in order to create more accurate estimations. In this paper, a prototype system will be presented, which aims at predicting the final cost, based on information available at the bidding stage. The methodology will be based on a combination of regression analysis and case-based reasoning in order to produce models for the prediction of final cost. These models will incorporate a process view and will depend on activity based costing methodology to estimate the process cost.