This describes how to use the BMRA Intermediate Contract Pricing CD. It is primarily used in week one of this two week course, but the students may need to refer to it throughout both weeks.  (Download a Printable PDF version)

Background             Student PC Setup               Installing Free Readers

The ICP CD is one of the features that differentiate BMRA from other providers of this course. Our approach of using Acquisition Wizards in lieu of log-log graph paper has been very popular with students. As noted in the Instructor Guide, our approach is that "…THIS IS A PRICING COURSE, NOT A MATH COURSE. Every chapter gives you the exact procedure for using a calculator and graph paper to apply the technique, and the mathematical rationale for every step in every calculation. For every technique, we have created a Wizard, a spreadsheet, which performs the calculations for you. The focus of this first week is on data entry, data output, and data interpretation. You must know what data to enter and how. You must know what data outputs are of value to your estimating tasks, and how to make use of those outputs in developing positions on whether a proposed price is fair and reasonable."

Familiarize yourself with the Student CD before you start the class. You will be able to help the students more easily if you are conversant with all of the contents of the CD. As a review, it is contains:

The Home Page, which shows the BMRA home page and actual links – providing the user has Internet access.

The Navigation Bar: This is the key to getting around the CD. Quick links to:

a. Contents (more later)

b. Tools – Free Adobe and Microsoft Reader software

c. The BMRA Catalog – in PDF, printable, format

d. A help page for using the CD.

At the top of the screen is the Home Page Header:

Return to the Home Page of the CD at any time by clicking on this header.

Introduction to the CD. Click to see a brief introduction, including a synopsis of the CD Contents:

e. BMRA Course Catalog (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format)

f. DCAA Guides to Improvement, Regression, and Sampling

g. DCAA EZ Quant software (installs to your PC)

h. ICP Pricing Wizards spreadsheets to provide immediate help in your daily acquisition tasks

i. ICP discussions: Advanced Issues, Quantitative techniques, etc.

j. Sample BMRA Wizards©

Navigation. Click on the Get Help icon, to see:

Navigating... ·   Click on the links to the left to go directly to each area. ·   Click on the BMRA header above to return to the Main Page at any time.  ·   Contents is the list of all the software and documents on this CD. ·   Tools is a collection of viewers and readers, in case you don't have a licensed copy of the software needed to view the documents. ·   Catalog is a printable PDF version of BMRA's Course Catalog. ·   HELP when you need this help page. Note:  When you pause the mouse c CD Contents Details. When you click on the Contents icon, you’ll see: ursor over an icon, a tool tip will appear that provides more detail about the link. When you are on the Contents pages, click the Expand Arrows to show the software and files in that section. [] <==== Click here to illustrate expanding for more detail ... Click on the Hide Details Arrows  [] to close up the details and return to the main Table of Contents.

When you click on a Content link, it will expand to show the details in that topic:

The student will spend most of their time in the ICP Pricing Wizards topic:
This is an extensive list with ALL of the BMRA ICP Pricing Wizards. During the span of the ICP course, you will ask the students to open the Wizard that supports the exercises in a specific section of their student manual. See the next section

See the next section to see how to set up the Student PC’s for easiest use of the Wizards during the class.

Setting up the Student PC is critical to the smooth running of the class. Here’s how to do it:

If you have time before class:

1. Turn on all PC’s and ensure they boot successfully.

2. For each Student PC:

a. Insert an ICP CD into the CDROM drive

b. When the Shell Run dialog box opens, it indicates that the CD is Autobooting.

Explain this to the students so they’ll know how to use the CD at home.

c.

The Home Page will appear. If the student is using the CD at home or office, inform the student that this is the screen they’ll see. Note the "D:\index.htm" shown in the address block of the window. This is the name of the CDROM drive on that computer. It will almost always be the "D:" drive.

d. In the screen above, click in the Address block. If there is no address block shown, click on the window title bar (on the words BMRA Interactive CDROM), press and hold the [Ctrl] key and then press the [L] key once. The Open dialog box will appear.

e. In either the Address block of the main Internet Explorer window or the Open dialog box, enter the name of the CDROM drive ONLY. As shown above, enter D:\ and then click the [OK].

f. Click once on the icppw folder – this is the folder will all of the BMRA Acquisition Pricing Wizards.

g. Make sure you can see the desktop around the BMRA ICP CD window.

h.

Copy the folder to the below as shown in the image just below:

i. You will see a dialog box showing that you are copying the folder to the desktop,
and you’ll see the folder icon on the desktop with the label icppw underneath.

j. Now when you ask the students to access a BMRA ICP Pricing Wizard, they’ll just double-click on that folder, and then double-click on the desired Wizard to launch Microsoft Excel with the Wizard:

 

The BMRA ICP CD is designed to be used totally stand-alone, on just about any PC or Macintosh. Most PC users today have Microsoft Office installed on their computers. In addition, the ubiquitous Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free download from Adobe – all PC’s should have this software installed.

If not, the CD has an installable, free reader to use with all of the files on the CD. When you view documents that require software, you’ll see a link to install the appropriate reader:

For example, if you click on the Need Viewer? link on the DCAA on Regression line, you will see:

Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on the appropriate viewer.

Click on the desired reader link and follow the directions to install the desired viewer.