Patent ID: 7469235

Claim:
A computer program product recorded on a computer readable medium for estimating a cost of a product and/or service, said product and/or service comprising a multiplicity of components, said computer program product comprising: first program instructions to identify one or more first components with no cost dependencies; second program instructions to determine one or more second components whose costs depend on the cost of said one or more first components; third program instructions to determine one or more third components whose costs depend on said one or more second components; fourth program instructions to determine one or more fourth components whose costs depend on said one or more third components; for each of said second, third and fourth components, fifth program instructions to determine an initial weight based on and greater than a weight of the respective first, second or third component from which the cost of said second, third and fourth component depends; for each of said third components which is one of said second components, sixth program instructions to increase the weight of said each third component based on the weight of the second component from which the cost of said each third component depends; for each of said fourth components which is one of said third components, seventh program instructions to increase the weight of said each fourth component based on the weight of the third component from which the cost of said each fourth component depends; eighth program instructions for generating a graphical representation for use in estimating the cost of the product and/or service, wherein the eighth program instructions for generating a graphical representation for use in estimating the cost of the product and/or service comprises instructions for generating a first graphical representation which includes the identified components and the cost dependency information of each of the components on other components of the same product and/or service; and wherein said first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh instructions comprise instructions for converting the first graphical presentation to a second graphical representation for use in estimating the cost of the product and/or service.