Cost

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Cost is an Evaluation Characteristic concerning the value of Resources required, consumed, committed, or foregone for a specified subject, activity, or outcome.

Cost can apply to:

• A Candidate Solution
• A Distributed System
• A Node
• A Qualified Node
• A Node Set
• A service
• A product
• A deployment
• A maintenance activity
• A Test Run
• A transition
• An operation
• An acquisition
• Another subject, activity, or outcome having an assigned value

Cost can include:

• Acquisition cost
• Licensing cost
• Development cost
• Integration cost
• Deployment cost
• Infrastructure cost
• Operating cost
• Storage cost
• Energy cost
• Communication cost
• Maintenance cost
• Support cost
• Training cost
• Migration cost
• Transition cost
• Recovery cost
• Compliance cost
• Decommissioning cost
• Disposal cost
• Opportunity cost
• Another cost category established by the Acceptance Criteria

Cost can identify:

• The evaluated subject
• The specified activity or outcome
• The cost category
• The included Resources
• The excluded Resources
• The applicable time period
• The applicable jurisdiction
• The applicable currency
• The applicable valuation date
• The applicable price source
• The applicable discount rate
• The applicable allocation method
• The applicable normalization method
• The applicable assumptions
• The applicable uncertainty
• The applicable DIDO Baseline
• The applicable Validation Criteria
• The applicable Acceptance Criteria
• Its Evidence
• Its Provenance
• Its Traceability

Cost can be expressed as:

• Total cost
• Initial cost
• Recurring cost
• Fixed cost
• Variable cost
• Marginal cost
• Cost per transaction
• Cost per Test Run
• Cost per Node
• Cost per User
• Cost per unit of time
• Cost per unit of completed work
• Lifecycle cost
• Another value established by the Acceptance Criteria

Evaluation Characteristic concerning the value of Resources required, consumed, committed, or foregone for a specified subject, activity, or outcome

Adapted from:

• Evaluation Characteristic
• Resource
• Resource Consumption
• Financial Systems Archetype, Part 7: Governed Node Service Market
• DIDO Reference Implementation Conceptual Model
• DIDO-TE draft Requirements Register
• DIDO-TE Broad Agency Announcement source material

Cost differs from price:

• Cost concerns the value of Resources required, consumed, committed, or foregone
• Price identifies an amount requested or paid in an exchange

Price can contribute to Cost but does not necessarily represent total Cost.

Cost differs from Resource Consumption:

• Resource Consumption identifies the amount of a Resource used
• Cost assigns a value to Resources required, consumed, committed, or foregone

Two Candidate Solutions can consume equivalent Resources but have different Cost because of differences in:

• Prices
• Licensing
• Jurisdiction
• Allocation methods
• Support arrangements
• Contract terms
• Valuation dates

Lower Cost does not necessarily indicate a preferable Candidate Solution. The lower-Cost Candidate Solution can have lower:

• Functional Correctness
• Performance Efficiency
• Reliability
• Security
• Interoperability
• Scalability
• Maintainability
• Recoverability

A Cost comparison must identify its boundary. Statements such as lower cost or cost effective are not objectively verifiable without identifying:

• The included Cost categories
• The excluded Cost categories
• The evaluation period
• The currency
• The valuation method
• The normalization method
• The comparison reference

Estimated Cost should be distinguishable from measured, incurred, invoiced, or paid Cost.

DIDO-TE evaluates three Candidate Solutions over a projected five-year operational period.

The Acceptance Criteria include:

• Acquisition cost
• Licensing cost
• Deployment cost
• Infrastructure cost
• Energy cost
• Storage cost
• Maintenance cost
• Support cost
• Decommissioning cost

The Acceptance Criteria establish the currency, valuation date, discount rate, workload, and allocation method.

DIDO-TE associates measured Resource Consumption with the applicable price information and records each Cost assumption.

The comparative evaluation reports total and per-transaction Cost for each Candidate Solution while preserving Evidence, Provenance, and Traceability.