Cost estimation is a crucial field for companies developing software or software-intensive systems. Besides point estimates, effective project management also requires information about cost-related project risks, e.g., a probability distribution of project costs. One possibility to provide such information is the application of Monte Carlo simulation. However, it is not clear whether other sim...

It has been widely reported that a large number of ERP implementations fail to meet expectations. This is indicative, firstly, of the magnitude of the problems involved in ERP systems implementation and, secondly, of the importance of the ex-ante evaluation and selection process of ERP software. This paper argues that ERP evaluation should extend its scope beyond operational improvements arisin...

Function point is the most widely used functional size measure in the software industry. It serves several purposes like software cost estimation, productivity management, quality management, benchmarking, outsourcing management, and several others. The goal of project FP-Formal, a research project funded by Bell Canada, is to formalize the function point measure in order to automate its calcul...

Software failures can lead to substantial costs for the user. Existing models for software reliability prediction do not provide much insight into this financial impact. Our approach presents a first step towards the integration of reliability prediction from the IT perspective and the business perspective. We show that failure impact should be taken into account not only at their date of occur...

A cornerstone of software project management is effort estimation, the process by which effort is forecasted and used as basis to predict costs and allocate resources effectively, so enabling projects to be delivered on time and within budget. Effort estimation is a very complex domain where the relationship between factors is non-deterministic and has an inherently uncertain nature, and where ...

Accurate software development cost estimation is important for effective project management such as budgeting, project planning and control. So far, no model has proved to be successful at effectively and consistently predicting software development cost. A novel neuro-fuzzy Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) is proposed for software cost estimation. This model carries some of the desirable featu...

The accurate estimation of software development effort has major implications for the management of software development in the industry. Underestimates lead to time pressures that may compromise full functional development and thorough testing of the software product. On the other hand, overestimates can result in over allocation of development resources and personnel [7]. Many models for effo...

Introduction: About 50 to 70 percent of the waste management total cost is spent on collection operations, so any little progress in reducing collection costs could significantly reduce total costs. This study aimed to analyze the collection and transportation of municipal solid waste cost in Yazd in the next 15 years. Materials and Methods: The study location (five areas) was different urban ...