Project Management, Costing and Engineering Ethics
Project Management, Costing and Engineering Ethics tests the commercial and professional side of consultancy: schedule control, cost estimating, contracting, and the conduct expected of an Egyptian consulting engineer.
Schedule and cost control
- WBS, critical path method and float analysis; crashing trades cost for time and must be justified by liquidated damages or earlier revenue.
- Earned value: CPI = EV/AC, SPI = EV/PV, EAC = BAC/CPI, ETC = EAC − AC, VAC = BAC − EAC.
- AACE estimate classes: Class 5 (about −30%/+50%) at concept, Class 1 (about −10%/+15%) at tender. Contingency covers identified risk; management reserve sits outside the project baseline.
- Egyptian conditions: VAT, customs on imported equipment, EGP/USD exposure, escalation, and FIDIC-based contracts delivered as EPC or EPCM.
- Quick estimating: Lang factors for capacity-based cost, and the six-tenths rule C2 = C1 (Q2/Q1)^0.6.
Ethics
- Competence: sign and stamp only work inside your discipline and experience; the Syndicate code and the duty to the public override a client's instruction.
- Conflicts of interest, gifts and facilitation payments: disclose, decline, record.
- Confidentiality of client data, honest reporting of test results and safety findings, and refusal to certify work not performed.
Worked example - earned value
A project has BAC = 10 M EGP. At month 6, PV = 4.0 M, EV = 3.5 M, AC = 4.2 M. CPI = 3.5/4.2 = 0.83 and SPI = 3.5/4.0 = 0.88, so the project is over budget and behind schedule. Forecast EAC = 10/0.83 = 12.0 M EGP, an overrun of 2.0 M EGP that must be reported with a recovery plan; VAC = −2.0 M EGP.
Traps
- Using PV/AC as a performance index.
- Applying the six-tenths rule across a technology change or a large capacity ratio.
- Reporting a favourable CPI while subcontractor claims remain unapproved.
- Signing a drawing outside your field of competence.