Information System Cost Estimating: A Management Perspective

Factors affecting duration and effort estimation errors in software development projects

“…Estimation is performed for a variety of reasons: project selection, staYng, scheduling, monitoring and control, team performance assessment, and marketing. Management and client involvement, as well as political/organizational factors such as the inability to accurately determine the programmers' skill level, lack of estimation methods, pressures to lower the estimation, lack of past data, and frequent changes by the users may all have a substantial inXuence on the estimation accuracy [22].…”

Exploiting organizational knowledge in developing IS project cost and schedule estimates: An empirical study

“…These include such familiar approaches as the constructive cost model (COCOMO) [8,50] and function point analysis (see, for example [44,50]). One commonality across formal modeling approaches is the systematic method to creating estimates [54]. Although there are certainly differences between the underlying models used for parametric estimations, the analytical approach and the reliance on a standard measure can be expected to increase predictability.…”

“…In addition to the expertise applied to the estimate by such a practice, these team members also are familiar with their schedule and the competing obligations on other projects, maintenance and operations work. This approach also can help instill a sense of personal ownership of, and accountability for, the estimates, further increasing the likelihood that the estimate will prove accurate [43,52,54].…”

“…Demand for further insights into cost and duration estimating persist [54,55]. Indeed, scholars have called for renewed inquiry [54,55], suggesting that ''perhaps a study of the actual experiences of practicing computing managers and other computing professionals might provide guidance in the cost [and duration] estimating process that previous studies have not [55, p. 51]''. In this regard, project managers use project management practices to make project costs and durations predictable, so that they can be accurately estimated.…”

Applications of fuzzy logic to software metric models for development effort estimation

“…For the developer, manager, and user of any software product the prediction of project effort requirements is an extremely important activity [3,4]. The estimate arrived at frequently forms the basis for contract negotiations, resource and personnel allocation over the schedule, and charging for the project.…”