Software Cost Estimation, Benchmarking, and Risk Assessment: The Software Decision-Makers' Guide to Predictable Software Development

✍ Scribed by Adam Trendowicz (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 336
• Series: The Fraunhofer IESE Series on Software and Systems Engineering
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Software effort estimation is a key element of software project planning and management. Yet, in industrial practice, the important role of effort estimation is often underestimated and/or misunderstood.

In this book, Adam Trendowicz presents the CoBRA method (an abbreviation for Cost Estimation, Benchmarking, and Risk Assessment) for estimating the effort required to successfully complete a software development project, which uniquely combines human judgment and measurement data in order to systematically create a custom-specific effort estimation model. CoBRA goes far beyond simply predicting the development effort; it supports project decision-makers in negotiating the project scope, managing project risks, benchmarking productivity, and directing improvement activities. To illustrate the method’s practical use, the book reports several real-world cases where CoBRA was applied in various industrial contexts. These cases represent different estimation contexts in terms of software project environment, estimation objectives, and estimation constraints.

This book is the result of a successful collaboration between the process management division of Fraunhofer IESE and many software companies in the field of software engineering technology transfer. It mainly addresses software practitioners who deal with planning and managing software development projects as part of their daily work, and is also of interest for students or courses specializing in software engineering or software project management.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xxvi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Why Software Effort Estimation?....Pages 3-7
What Is a Good Estimate?....Pages 9-10
Why the CoBRA Method?....Pages 11-12
Front Matter....Pages 13-13
Principles of the CoBRA Method....Pages 15-20
Model Development and Validation....Pages 21-147
Model Application....Pages 149-165
Usage Scenarios of a CoBRA Model....Pages 167-188
Front Matter....Pages 189-189
Software Design and Management, Germany....Pages 191-202
Allette Systems, Australia....Pages 203-218
Oki Electric, Japan....Pages 219-253
Siemens Information Systems, India....Pages 255-284
Japan Manned Space Systems, Japan....Pages 285-296
Back Matter....Pages 297-322

✦ Subjects

Software Engineering; Management of Computing and Information Systems; Project Management