Cost Model Data Object

Purpose

The Cost Model data object defines the way a Digital Product accounts for its cost pertaining to delivered services.

Key Attributes

The Cost Model data object shall have the following key data attributes:

  • Id: unique identifier of the Cost Model

  • Name: descriptive name for the Cost Model

  • Description: text description detailing the purpose and principles of construction of the Cost Model

  • Status: indicates if the Cost Model is in use, depreciated, or experimental

  • Version: current version of the model (models evolve over time)

  • Calculation: formula for calculating cost

  • Resource Type: type of resource considered (hardware, software, HR, or external service – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)

  • Resource Id: identification of the Resource that will incur cost charges

  • Resource Unit of Work: the most granular element for which a cost is charged; e.g., hours, GBytes, CPUs)

  • Cost per Unit of Work: monetary amount per unit of work (e.g., x euros per gigabyte of storage)

  • Time Period: time span for which the cost per unit of work has been calculated

Key Data Object Relationships

The Cost Model data object shall maintain the following relationships:

  • Cost Model to Chargeback Record (1:n): a “live” Cost Model informs the Chargeback Record of the cost per unit of work; for a basic service (i.e., not a composite of other services), the Chargeback Record will multiply the cost per unit of work of the Resource underlying the service by the Usage data from its associated Usage Record

  • Cost Model to Resource: (1:n): the Cost Model must be structured by the various Resource types used in IT