Two Novel Effort Estimation Models Based on Quality Metrics in Web Projects

Web development projects are certainly different from traditional software development projects and, hence, require differently tailored measures for accurate effort estimation. Effort estimation accuracy will affect the availability of resource allocation and task scheduling. In this paper, we investigate the suitability of a newly proposed quality metrics and models to estimate the effort and duration for small or medium-size Web development projects. It then describes a new size metrics, presents two novel methods (WEBMO+ and VPM+), based on WEB model (WEBMO) using Web objects instead of SLOC and Vector Prediction Model (VPM), to fast estimate the development effort of Web-based information systems. We also empirically validate the approach with a four projects study. The results indicate that the approach provides a mechanism to measure the size of software systems, classify software systems, and estimate development effort early in the software life cycle to within +/-20 percent across a range of application types. In contrast with other existing methods, WEBMO+ and VPM+ uses raw historical information about development capability and high granularity information about the system to be developed, in order to carry out such estimations. This method is simple and specially suited for small or medium-size Web based information systems. Key-Words: Web Quality, Effort Estimation Method, Sizing Metric, Web-based Metrics, Web Engineering.