News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Nelson testifies cost-plus contracts have been a “plague” on NASA. Parent comment

Re:Nelson testifies cost-plus contracts have been a “plague”... by golem14 on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @02:39PM (#31264222)
Here's how simple me thinks about it: Cost-plus is just a lazy version of fixed price, where instead of accountants looking at details before new funding is released, there's automatic approval of overruns.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nelson testifies cost-plus contracts have been a “plague”... by teruakohatu on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @03:04PM (#31264520)
> there's automatic approval of overruns.

That is not quite correct. Cost-plus specifies how charges are priced, it does not specify budgets.

I could sell you pencils at cost-plus. How many pencils you buy is up to you, not I.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Nelson testifies cost-plus contracts have been a “plague”... by golem14 on Saturday May 07, 2022 @02:16AM (#31292544)
Sure, but these projects tend to be one-offs or at least small runs where the contract commits to say 10 SLS missions or something like that.

Agreed that cost plus for something comparatively cheap like a new army rifle is probably different.

[ Parent | on HN ]