A Conceptual Framework for Software Change Effort Estimation during Ongoing Software Development

Change effort estimation (CEE) is the process of predicting the work and the hours needed when there is a software change request. Software changes that are not correctly addressed, not complete and not consistent with other artefacts will introduce delay to the project and exceed the original budget. Requirement changes during software development phase are delicate to handle due to the fact that the software artefacts are still undergoing development. Any change would affect the components under development. Software Project Manager (SPM) needs evidence and justifications to decide whether to accept or not a change request. This paper aims to investigate a suitable effort estimation approach that can be applied to requirement changes during an ongoing software development. A conceptual model of the influential effort estimation methods is proposed. It is hoped that the evidence and results from the proposed model is able to convince the client and the developers involved to accept the SPM’s decision.