Level 4 supports complex government planning, programming, budgeting and monitoring (PPBE) activities for programs Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP), Hosted Payload Office, Space Environmental NanoSat Experiment (SENSE); and Conventional Strike Missile (CSM). Level 4’s support for the planning, programming, budgeting and monitoring (PPBE) cycle includes:

Planning: Identifying and tailoring required deliverables; development of integrated project master work breakdown structures and schedules; and development of project management supporting plans (e.g., Risk Management Plan).

Programming: Supporting the process of optimally selecting and scheduling of projects within a resource constrained environment, and forecasting the impact of various possible scenarios for project execution.

Budgeting: Budget formulation, justification, and execution. Part of this work involves working within organization specific review, approval, and oversight structures for projects.

Monitoring: Monitoring project and portfolio performance using a combination of fiduciary oversight (e.g., expenditure reconciliation) and techniques such as earned value management (EVM). ExcelerPlan implements an extension to traditional EVM with support for monitoring project health across the dimensions of schedule, cost, effort, quality, and risk.

Level 4 has helped 13 of the Fortune 100, and 6 of the nation’s top 10 banks to improve estimation processes.

Level 4 assists with the optimization of all estimation processes, including functional estimation as part of demand management; technical estimates to support resource scheduling and resource constrained scheduling; and on-going change request sizing during the project life. Our ExcelerPlan product supports single project estimates at all stages of the project life; while our ExcelerStat governance product supports demand management, integrated planning and resource forecasting, and resource scheduling.

Level 4 has prepared more than 500 independent cost estimates covering projects with a combined value over $7B, with a combined accuracy to date better than +/-5%.

Independent cost estimates are used by government agencies as part of the feasibility/budgeting process; used to support vendor negotiations; and used to verify cost reasonableness in situations where less than three vendor bids are available as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulations. For large procurements, independent cost proposals may be requested by a bidder to support their cost proposal development, or to perform a competitive pricing analysis.


A formal independent cost estimation process integrated in the change management process is particularly critical for large, long-term projects. These projects will normally have a significant number of change requests over the life of the project, and by their nature these change requests will be non-competitive. Without a previously agreed to estimation oversight function, there are few if any constraints on the vendor when pricing each change request.