Effort Estimation in Component-Based Software Development: Identifying Parameters

Introduction Traditional software development is characterized by the structured programming paradigm introduced in the late 60’s and early 70’s. This paradigm relies on top-down functional decomposition to derive software modules. The structured programming paradigm provides a monolithic view of the software development process. Traditional software effort estimation models capture this monolithic view of software development. In these models, software effort is projected at the large-grained system level [1,4]. Contemporary development practices characterize a software application as interacting, independent components. These components may be Commercial-OffThe-Shelf (COTS) components, internally developed reusable components or newly developed software artifacts. To accurately predict effort in Component Based Software Development (CBSD), a fine-grained approach is needed to identify and classify the relevant cost factors. The limitations of traditional models are problematic for effort estimation in CBSD. Effort estimation in CBSD is concerned with deriving estimations for small, concurrent development projects. The small projects allow for quantitative and direct measurements of the factors influencing cost. The measured factors need to be continuous and easily transferable from project to project. The limitations of traditional models demonstrate the need for a new approach to effort estimation in CBSD.