Software Estimation Tools and Technique

Important Concept to Understand:

1. Software Sizing
• In order to perform software estimation, first you needed understand what is software size and how to perform appropriate software sizing
1. Function point
2. Use case point
3. Object Point
4. Mark II function point analysis
5. Software size units
2. Effort Estimation
3. Productivity 

APPROPRIATE SOFTWARE-SIZING TECHNIQUE:

• Try using function points. This technique is by far the most popular and most widely used, but first you need to learn it. Many free, downloadable resources are available on the Internet for self-teaching

• Use task-based estimation. This is simply estimating the effort required for each of the components in the work breakdown structure to arrive at the total effort needed for the project. This technique is explained in subsequent chapters.

When the actual effort varies from the estimated effort by more than chance variation (that is, by more than 10 percent), the following could be the reasons:

• The actual size of the software produced varies from the estimated software size
• While the estimate assumes average skill and average effort, the allocation of manpower could result in predominantly poorly skilled (or super-skilled) manpower for the project execution
• Project execution could be sloppy (or excellent)
• Estimation norms could be wrong