Cost breakdown structure
The New Rules of Measurement (NRM) are published by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and prepared by the Quantity Surveying and Construction Professional Group. They provide a standard set of measurement rules for estimating, cost planning, procurement and whole-life costing for construction projects.
According to NRM2: Detailed measurement for building works, in the context of bill of quantities, the cost breakdown structure (CBS) ‘…represents the financial breakdown of a building project into cost targets for elements or work packages.’ Where the bill of quantities (sometimes referred to as 'BoQ' or 'BQ') provides project specific measured quantities of the items of work identified by the drawings and specifications for a project .
The cost breakdown structure can be developed based on the work breakdown structure (WBS) and can be used to allocate costs to each part of the building project. The WBS and CBS provide a baseline for cost management of the project during construction.
For more information see: Bill of quantities breakdown structures.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Bill of quantities breakdown structures.
- NRM2.
- Approximate bill of quantities.
- Bill of quantities.
- Cost planning.
- Elemental bill of quantities.
- Firm bill of quantities.
- Measurement.
- Product breakdown structure.
- Tender documentation.
- Tender pricing document.
- Types of bill of quantities.
- Uniclass.
- Work breakdown structure.
- Work package bill of quantities.
- Work section bill of quantities.
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