How is Effort Estimated in Agile Software Development Projects?

Effort estimation is the first of many steps in the software development process that can lead to a successful project’s completion. It is a complex task, that constitutes the basis for all subsequent steps related to planing and management. Effort estimation is also a very important part in agile software development projects. In order to achieve the highest possible levels of accuracy, software development teams can make use of different techniques, methods and approaches, including advising group effort estimation [Molokken and Jorgensen 2003], subjective expert judgement [Trendowicz and Jeffery 2014] and planning poker [Cohn 2005]. In a variety of approaches and methods used, different questions arise: What are the pros and cons of approaches for effort estimation, how can different models be applied to a different development environment and specific development team, and most importantly, how accurate is effort estimation when using a specific method or approach.The average error in effort estimation is measured between