Context: software development effort estimation is a crucial management task that critically depends on the adopted size measure. Several Functional Size Measurement (FSM) methods have been proposed. COSMIC is considered a 2nd generation FSM method, to differentiate it from Function Point Analysis (FPA) and its variants, considered as 1st generation ones. In the context of Web applications, few...

This paper exemplifies how better knowledge about human judgement strategies known as heuristics can be used to improve software processes, especially estimation and prediction processes. Human judgement heuristics work well when they exploit a fit between their structure and the structure of the environment in which they are used. This use of environmental fit may lead to amazingly good judgem...

Software projects often do not meet their scheduling and budgeting targets. Inaccurate estimates are often responsible for this mismatch. This study investigates extant research on factors that affect accuracy of software development effort estimation. The purpose is to synthesize existing knowledge, propose directions for future research, and improve estimation accuracy in practice. A systemat...

The importance of Software Cost Estimation at the early stages of the development life cycle is clearly portrayed by the utilization of several algorithmic and artificial intelligence models and methods, appeared so far in the literature. Despite the several comparison studies, there seems to be a discrepancy in choosing the best prediction technique between them. Additionally, the large variat...

The best elucidations to software development problems are regularly touted as object-oriented processes. The popularity of object-oriented design metrics is essential in software engineering for measuring the software complexity, estimating size, quality and project efforts. There are various approaches through which we can find the software cost estimation and predicates on various kinds of d...

This paper addresses the issue of Software Cost Estimation (SCE) providing an alternative approach to modelling and prediction using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Input Sensitivity Analysis (ISA). The overall aim is to identify and investigate the effect of the leading factors in SCE, through ISA. The factors identified decisively influence software effort in the models examined and thei...

The paper gives an overview of the state o f the art o f software cost estimation (SCE). The main questions to be answered in the paper are: (I) What are the reasons for overruns o f budgets and planned durations? (2) What are the prerequisites for estimating? (3) How can software development effort be estimated? (4) What can software project management expect from SCE models, how accurate are ...

A new approach to perform feasibility studies using business process models is proposed. The utilization of the improved Role Activity Diagram notations has led to the extraction of the number of candidate use cases in software systems which naturally led to software cost estimation much before the availability of detailed system requirements. This enables project managers to perform their what...