Cost estimation in software engineering is typically concerned with the financial spend on the effort to develop and test the software, this can also include requirements review, maintenance, training, managing and buying extra equipment, servers and software. Many methods have been developed for estimating software costs for a given project.
Methods
Methods for estimation in software engineering include these principles:
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Analysis effort method
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Parametric Estimating
Estimation theory is a branch of statistics that deals with estimating the values of parameters based on measured empirical data that has a random component. The parameters describe an underlying physical setting in such a way that their valu ...
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The Planning Game (from
Extreme Programming
Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. As a type of agile software development,"Human Centred Technology Workshop 2006 ", 2006, P ...
)
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ITK method
Methodology to evaluate complexity and cost of developing and maintaining application software for creating information systems (Method CETIN) - this is an algorithmic model assessment value (economics), value software, developed by a consortium o ...
, also known as Method CETIN
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Proxy-based estimating Proxy-Based Estimating (PROBE) is an estimating process used in the Personal Software Process (PSP) to estimate size and effort.
Proxy Based Estimating (PROBE), is the estimation method introduced by Watts Humphrey
(of the Software Engineering Ins ...
(PROBE) (from the
Personal Software Process)
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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
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Putnam_model The Putnam model is an empirical software effort estimation model.
The original paper by Lawrence H. Putnam published in 1978 is seen as pioneering work in the field of software process modelling.
As a group, empirical models work by collecting sof ...
, also known as SLIM
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PRICE Systems Founders of Commercial Parametric models that estimates the scope, cost, effort and schedule for software projects.
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SEER-SEM Parametric Estimation of Effort, Schedule, Cost, Risk. Minimum time and staffing concepts based on
Brooks's law
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The Use Case Points method (UCP)
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Weighted Micro Function Points (WMFP)
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Wideband Delphi
Most cost software development estimation techniques involve estimating or measuring software size first and then applying some knowledge of historical of cost per unit of size. Software size is typically sized in
SLOC,
Function Point or
Agile story points.
See also
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Software development effort estimation In software development, effort estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic amount of effort (expressed in terms of person-hours or money) required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and noisy input. Effort ...
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Software metric
In software engineering and development, a software metric is a standard of measure of a degree to which a software system or process possesses some property. Even if a metric is not a measurement (metrics are functions, while measurements are ...
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Project management
Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
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Cost overrun
A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known ...
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Risk
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...
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Comparison of development estimation software
External links
Software Estimation chapterfrom O'Reilly, ''Applied Software Project Management''
Estimating With Use Case Pointsfrom ''Methods & Tools''
Definition of Use Case Points method (UCP)* Roy K. Clemmons
Project Estimation With Use Case PointsEstimating techniques throughout the SDLC
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