The purpose of this course is to provide a step-by-step explanation of how to integrate cost, schedule, technical planning and control into a total management system for achieving program/project objectives. The course relates these planning and control procedures to the developing philosophy of concurrent engineering and integrated product development.

Management must have an effective system for comparing the actual  work  being accomplished with the planned increments of work, regardless of the time period in which the work is performed and regardless of whether there is a formal customer requirement. This information is necessary in any size project in order to appraise performance against plan and to seek to identify problem areas early enough to examine a number of alternatives other than simply finding additional funding, slipping the delivery schedule or reducing technical performance. This information is also necessary to appraise the impact of proposed changes.