Software Measurement And Estimation

An effective, quantitative approach for estimating and managing software projects How many people do I need? When will the quality be good enough for commercial sale? Can this really be done in two weeks? Rather than relying on instinct, the authors of Software Measurement and Estimation offer a new, tested approach that includes the quantitative tools, data, and knowledge needed to make sound estimations. The text begins with the foundations of measurement, identifies the appropriate metrics, and then focuses on techniques and tools for estimating the effort needed to reach a given level of quality and performance for a software project. All the factors that impact estimations are thoroughly examined, giving you the tools needed to regularly adjust and improve your estimations to complete a project on time, within budget, and at an expected level of quality. This text includes several features that have proven to be successful in making the material accessible and easy to master: * Simple, straightforward style and logical presentation and organization enables you to build a solid foundation of theory and techniques to tackle complex estimations * Examples, provided throughout the text, illustrate how to use theory to solve real-world problems * Projects, included in each chapter, enable you to apply your newfound knowledge and skills * Techniques for effective communication of quantitative data help you convey your findings and recommendations to peers and management Software Measurement and Estimation: A Practical Approach allows practicing software engineers and managers to better estimate, manage, and effectively communicate the plans and progress of their software projects. With its classroom-tested features, this is an excellent textbook for advanced undergraduate-level and graduate students in computer science and software engineering. An Instructor Support FTP site is available from the Wiley editorial department.

The author explains what is meant by software measurement and how to decide what to measure; how to use measurement to support different aspects of a process improvement programme; how to set quantitative goals using a pragmatic approach to the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm; how to set up a metrication programme and design a data collection system; and how to analyse the software data collected.

Software effort estimation is one of the oldest and most important problems in software project management, and thus today there are a large number of models, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses in general, and even more importantly, in relation to the environment and context in which it is to be applied. Trendowicz and Jeffery present a comprehensive look at the principles of software effort estimation and support software practitioners in systematically selecting and applying the most suitable effort estimation approach. Their book not only presents what approach to take and how to apply and improve it, but also explains why certain approaches should be used in specific project situations. Moreover, it explains popular estimation methods, summarizes estimation best-practices, and provides guidelines for continuously improving estimation capability. Additionally, the book offers invaluable insights into project management in general, discussing issues including project trade-offs, risk assessment, and organizational learning. Overall, the authors deliver an essential reference work for software practitioners responsible for software effort estimation and planning in their daily work and who want to improve their estimation skills. At the same time, for lecturers and students the book can serve as the basis of a course in software processes, software estimation, or project management.

The role of metrics and models in software development; Software metrics; Measurement and analysis; Small scale experiments, micro-models of effort, and programming techniques; Macro-models of productivity; Macro-models for effort estimation; Defect models; The future of software engineering metrics and models; References; Appendices; Index.

Practical approach to software measurement Contains hands-on industry experiences

Controlling Software Projects shows managers how to organize software projects so they are objectively measurable, and prescribes techniques for making early and accurate projections of time and cost to deliver.

“As projects get more complicated, managers stop learning from their - perience. It is important to understand how that happens and how to change it.... Fallible estimates: In software development, initial estimates for a project shape the trajectory of decisions that a manager makes over its life. For ex- ple, estimates of the productivity of the team members influence decisions about the size of the team, which in turn affect the team’s actual output. The trouble is that initial estimates usually turn out to be wrong. ” (Sengupta, 2008) This book aims directly to increase the awareness among managers and practitioners that estimation is as important as the work to be done in so- ware and systems development. You can manage what you can measure! Readers will find in this book a collection of lessons learned from the worldwide “metrics community,” which we have documented and enhanced with our own experiences in the field of software measurement and estimating. Our goal is to support our readers to harvest the benefits of estimating and - prove their software development processes. We present the 5 ISO/I- acknowledged Functional Sizing Methods with variants, experiences, counting rules, and case studies – and most importantly, illustrate through practical - amples how to use functional size measurement to produce realistic estimates. The book is written in a practical manner, especially for the busy practitioner community. It is aimed to be used as a manual and an assistant for everyday work.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the International Workshop on Software Measurement, IWSM-Mensura 2007, held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in November 2007. The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers deal with aspects of software measurement like function-points measurement, effort and cost estimates, prediction, industrial experiences in software measurement, planning and implementing measurement, measurement-based software process improvement, best practices in software measurement, usability and user interaction measurement, measurement of open source projects, teaching and learning software measurement as well as new trends and ontologies for software measurement.