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Information Systems Development

Cost Estimation for Software Development Projects

The development and use of effective and efficient methods for estimating the costs of software development remain difficult challenges in software engineering.  Many studies have shown wide discrepancies between estimates and actual costs and completion schedules of software development.  Project managers strive to make accurate estimations of cost and effort, but without good software cost estimation tools, the effectiveness of software project management is reduced.  In this research, we present our ideas for extending the COCOMO II framework to include the selection of process structure, staff size, and staff loading on groups in the process structure.  Based on the optimization of costs for intra-group communication and inter-group coordination we propose a decision support system (DSS) to support a project manager’s decisions on staff size, process structure, and staff loading.

Refereed Conference Publications

  1. M. Douglas, A. Hevner, and R. Collins, “The Impacts of Process Structure, Communication, and Coordination on Software Project Estimation,” Proceedings of the 18th International Forum on COCOMO and Software Cost Modeling, Los Angeles, October 2003.