The cost function for a FAF is the amount the contractor will spend on the FAF, including the purchase price, maintenance, and installation. So if you wish to create a cost-benefit analysis for the FAF then there is a need to know the maintenance and installation costs.
The Project specifies a package which can be downloaded from the web which can be used to generate cost functions for the FAF. But the package does not provide you with detailed information about the maintenance and installation costs. The user manual for the package states that maintenance and installation will be added to the final costing as part of the contract administration.
The user manual also says that they will be able to calculate the net benefit of the FAF, which is the difference between the acquisition cost and the end use. This information is only available in the original FAF documentation.
But when you try to search for net benefits for a FAF on the net you get very little information. It seems that to find the net benefits for a FAF there is an issue of confidentiality involved.
The software being provided to the contractor needs to be completely transparent, with only limited information being passed onto the contractor. This is a necessary step in order to protect the contractor from unwittingly passing sensitive information about maintenance and installation costs to other parties without their knowledge.
Because the cost function for a FAF is such a critical parameter to be found, there is a need to make the project as transparent as possible. So I came up with the idea of building a web based utility which would allow the contractor to add maintenance and installation costs to the FAF, then run a program that would generate cost related to these additions. After the job has been completed, the utility could be used to print the final costs, to show the contractor just how much the project will cost.
The utility would let the contractor easily add maintenance and installation costs to the FAF, so that the project cost would be computed and the final results could be shown to the contractor. In addition, it would allow the contractor to save time and money by knowing exactly what they will be spending money on. This would also allow the contractor to set up the job so that the project would meet the bottom line goals.
There are many limitations to this system. For example, it is impossible to allow the contractor to specify exactly what maintenance and installation costs they are to include.
This also means that the utility cannot provide the contractor with a place to check to see if the utility is accurately reporting the true cost of the project. However, this is a small limitation.
The utility needs to be set up to be used as a service for the contractor. Any developer who wants to use the utility for their own purposes would have to make modifications to the project.
If the project had been open sourced then it would be easier for the developers to modify the system and make it more efficient. If the project had been open sourced then it would also be easier for them to find out the correct cost related to the project.