EAI Estimation Challenges - Cosmic FFP Efficacy

Does it really require those umpteen yardsticks to assess the software size before one can plan for the software build? The obvious answer to the question fortifies the argument whilst the assessment process complexity presents colossal challenges to estimation process; it is the identification of the “right yardstick” which merits much of the required deliberation. Today, IT industry has certain proven estimation models (FP, UCP etc.) that provide standard guidelines for the software size estimation and are widely used for sizing J2EE and .net solutions but the estimation requirements for implementation projects in Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) space not only demand assessing the size of many discrete components that finally constitutes the EAI interfaces but also considering size of the tasks like monitoring, sequencing, application availability and performance that impact the required effort (a function of size). We, therefore, need not labour the point that sizing an EAI implementation, inextricably tied with the effort by productivity, is mostly compromised with “direct” effort calculation, a Modus Vivendi, which provides ad interim relief but does not compensate for, as a quid pro quo, the need to identify a right EAI estimation yardstick.