Software development is tricky as it involves some degree of guess work. One thought on “ A simple project effort estimation utility.
- Which is better for estimating software project resources. as instantiated in estimation tools, or expert judgment? Software Development Effort Estimation.
- Chapter 15: Effort Estimation. Revolve allows you to populate effort estimation Excel workbooks directly. In the Worksheet effort template.
- Estimating template. (Consider the following areas in estimating your software development. Development Effort - (time*rate) by resource type, by.
- Effort Estimation for Software Development. Posted on: 8 August 2013; By. This tool enables software development effort estimation using 5 different methods.
- Estimating Software Projects By. Figure 4. Software Estimation Process. engagements as a software development consultant.
- Project estimation becomes increasingly difficult. accurate estimate the effort. projects or is it suited for just software/ application development.
- Software Project Estimation. a software development project manager will only estimate the labor cost and. estimation process Actual size, effort, etc. Resources.
- METHODS OF EFFORT ESTIMATION IN SOFTWARE. relevant methods and models for effort estimation used by software engineers in. of a development team to.
Avionyx specializes in safety critical embedded software with rigorous. Software Development - Effort Estimation for. measure software projects.
Avionyx. Embedded Systems Offshore Services Provider In Costa Rica - Effort Estimation for Embedded Software Development. Page 2 of 2. Software Measurement. In order to compare projects and identify their commonalities and differences, we must first characterize and measure software projects. Therefore, the first step towards estimating and controlling projects effectively is to establish a proper software measurement system. Due to its abstract nature, software measurement is different from measuring physical variables, which rely on comparing the measured object to a pattern. Measurement implies assigning quantities to attributes of an entity. Software measurement uses different types of scales. Those scales were first named by psychologist S. S. Stevens[5] in 1. Nominal: In a nominal scale, entities are categorized using labels such as classifying computer programs by the programming language.
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Ordinal: Ordinal scales allow using rank order relationship, saying nothing about the difference between two ranks. An example would be a subjective classification of the complexity a computer program using a Likert scale. Interval: In interval scales, quantitative attributes are used to measure the distance between two values. These values are meaningful but the reference point is arbitrary. This type of scale is not commonly used in software measurement. Examples of an interval scale are the Celsius or Fahrenheit temperature scales. Ratio: Ratio scales are the most information rich. Ratio scales derive their name from the fact that measurement is done estimating the ratio between a unit measurement and the magnitude of a contiguous quantity. Ratio scales have a non- arbitrary zero point. Take for instance, the case of temperature; the Kelvin scale is a ratio scale because it is not possible to have a temperature under 0 Kelvins. In software measurement, we could use a ratio scale to measure source lines of code, cyclomatic complexity, software size in unadjusted function points, etc.
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Implementing a software measurement program has an overhead cost; therefore, it needs to be optimized for return on investment. According to Mike Cohn[6], the accuracy of estimation is not linear with the effort spent on the process. As an example, you could spend time tracking the hours you spend on every single configuration management activity; or, you could realize they normally represent around 5% of the total project effort, in which case you wouldn’t need per- activity metrics. The number of factors that affect the software process can be overwhelming (see Table 1) and you can’t pretend to be able to measure them all. In order to select the metrics you need for estimation purposes, you can follow a process such as the GQM method (Goal- Question- Metric) by Victor Basili[7]. The GQM paradigm states that you need to set objectives before embarking on a software measurement program. Once you have set your objectives, you ask yourself questions that allow you to characterize the object of measurement in order to achieve the goal set. Finally, a set of metrics is proposed that allow answering those questions in a measurable way. Van Solingen and Berghout[8] describe the GQM method as the four- phase process illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Phases of the Goal/Question/Metric method (Source: van Solingen & Berghout 9. For a measurement program to be effective for estimation, the goal should be characterizing projects in order to compare them. This will allow you to know whether or not a project is relevant to be considered as a reference for the estimation of another project. Also, it will tell you if your estimation model is effective or if the results you are getting are a matter of chance. It could happen that, at the end of a project, you realize you spent exactly what you had budgeted, but the actual conditions were completely different from the ones you had assumed when you did your estimation.
Estimation Methods. In general, all estimation methods (whether performed by a computer or a human being) follow a similar approach: Characterize the product size. Characterize the product complexity. Characterize environmental factors. Characterize projects developed in the past.
Assess commonalities and differences between reference project and target project. Extrapolate the variables that need to be estimated based on the reference project.
The way each of these steps is performed determines the estimation method. Estimation methods can be classified in numerous ways. The software estimation literature does not clearly distinguish between model, method or technique. In this article, we refer to them simply as estimation methods. We can classify estimation methods by the level of granularity as: Top- Down or System- level methods: These methods (also called macro- estimation techniques) estimate the development effort at a system level without looking into the individual tasks that comprise the product development activity. Bottom- Up or Activity- based methods: These methods (also called micro- estimation and activity- based techniques) start by decomposing the project deliverables in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) into tasks that can be estimated individually. The final effort is simply the sum of the effort required for each task. Estimation methods can also be classified by the way the estimated variable is calculated: Based on Expert Judgment: Judgment based estimation methods rely on the experience of the estimator to identify commonalities and patterns between past projects and the one that needs to be estimated. Then variables are estimated based on the expert’s assessment of size and complexity differences. Parametric Models: Parametric models utilize formulas, algorithms, tables and user defined values to model the way product and process variables affect software development effort. Most parametric models are the result of the analysis of statistically significant project metric databases; still those models have to be calibrated to match your specific organization and conditions. Analogy methods: Analogy based methods use a relevant project as a reference to estimate the variables of the new project.
In future articles we will be reviewing some of these methods in more detail. Estimating Embedded Software Projects. Most literature, tools and benchmarks for software estimation are focused on business applications. This does not mean they cannot be used to develop real- time or embedded software, but there are considerations that have to be taken into account.
Product complexity: Software complexity comes from two sources: component complexity and inter- component complexity. When developing embedded or real- time software, complexity can severely affect development productivity. The number interfaces, timing constraints and concurrency make component interaction difficult to model and predict. Also, system complexity can significantly affect component complexity. Criticality: Embedded software often has to deal with mission critical or safety critical applications. In those cases, criticality imposes process requirements that can affect the level of effort, especially if certification by a regulatory agency is required. Input/Output & Read/Write models: While business applications use hard discs and databases for data storage, embedded software relies on hardware interfaces and limited memory resources (paged RAM, EEPROMs). Most embedded applications simply cannot afford the luxury of database servers and query languages. Development Environment: Embedded software can be developed in different ways: using model- based tools, high- level languages or assembly language. The development environment and processor type have to be characterized when comparing two projects to ensure you are not comparing apples to oranges. In general, it can be said that when developing embedded applications, it is particularly important to document the environmental conditions in order to ensure the metrics used as a reference for estimation are relevant to the target project. A Good Estimate. In the PMBOK® Guide[9] , The Project Management Institute (PMI) tells us that the planning process is a continuous activity that extends throughout the project lifecycle. As part of the planning process, resource estimation must be reviewed and updated constantly. A good estimate will produce accurate results if project conditions behave as originally assumed.
A good estimate starts with the documentation of all assumptions, product and environment conditions. As soon as these conditions change, the project estimate must be updated. Having a checklist of factors that may affect the project outcome will force you to think about the effect of each factor and will allow you to learn from past experience. A good estimate is the result of a technical process. Often the estimation process is biased by external factors such as budgetary constraints, competition or market circumstances. While these conditions cannot be denied, they must be given the right name: if your budget is 2. But you can’t magically lower your effort estimate by 2. A good estimate sets the right expectations from your customer and your team. Unrealistic expectations will create either a stressful environment or will not challenge your team to give their best effort.
In a series of follow- up articles, we will be reviewing these methods in more detail in order to provide you with a tool set that can help you produce good estimates.[5] Stevens, S. S. On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. Published in Science, New Series, Vol. No. 2. 68. 4 (Jun. Cohn, M. 2. 00. 5. Agile Estimating and Planning. Prentice Hall PTR.[7] Basili, V.
R., Weiss D. M. A methodology for collecting valid software engineering data. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. SE- 1. 0, No. 6, 1. Van Solingen, R., Berghout, E.
Effort Estimation. Revolve allows you to populate effort estimation Excel. You populate a Revolve worksheet and assign. The names of these categories represent the. The categories assigned to the.
Points of Interest (POIs) are the basis for estimating the coding and testing. You then extract the worksheet to a flat file. There are two inputs to the Revolve worksheet effort. A list of category names, with the coding- and testing- effort levels. A flat file with the contents of your project worksheet. A default version of the categories file is supplied in your.
Revolve installation directory in. Config\Reports\categories. This file contains. Revolve worksheet database template. As you. add new categories to your project, you can update the default categories file. See the section. Worksheet effort extract - update.
The flat file extract of your project worksheet is created by the. Worksheet effort extract - . POIs. By default, the file is created in your.
Revolve installation directory as < Project. Once you have both files, you can open the worksheet effort template and. For a more detailed explanation of the. Assume you have added several items to the Revolve worksheet. Running the. Worksheet effort extract - .
POIs tool will produce semi- colon delimited records. B- Currency; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. KEY; 3. 52. 09. 53. B- Size; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. KEY; 3. 52. 09. 54. B- Currency; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. SLICE- KEY; 3. 52.
B- Size; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. SLICE- KEY; 3. 52. B- Currency; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. MAIL- CODE; 3. 52.
B- Size; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. MAIL- CODE; 3. 52. A- No; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0.
INCLUDE- DATE; 3. A- Yes; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. CODE- SEND- XREF- IND; 3. B- Abbrevn; Data Items - COBOL; BRHL0. CODE- SEND- XREF- IND; 3. B- BMS_Field; Data Items - .
COBOL; BRHL0. 1- CODE- SEND- XREF- IND; where: field one is the Revolve POI id. COBOL statements). Each POI will have one record for each category that has been assigned.
Running the. Worksheet effort extract - update. A- ASSEMBLER; Assembler module; 0.
A- No; Definitely not a POI; 0; 0. A- Poss; Possible POI but unlikely; 0; 0. A- Prob; Probable POI requires investigation; 0; 0. A- Yes; Definite POI; 0; 0.
B- Abbrevn; POI involves an abbreviated currency- field; 1. B- BMS_Field; COBOL data item related to a BMS map; 4; 0. B- Constant; Numeric currency constant; 2; 2. B- Currency; COBOL currency field; 2; 2. B- Label; Currency- related alphanumeric label; 5; 4.
B- Size; Currency field needs expansion; 4. X- Auto. Conv; Automatic conversion; 0; 0.
X- Comment; Leave as is; 0; 0. X- Manual; Fix this manually; 0; 0. X- No. Op; Leave as is; 0; 0where: field one is the category name. The Excel Workbook loads the category definitions and the POI file. Revolve includes an Excel workbook template. Worksheet. Effort.
Template. xlt) in your Revolve. Reports. This template. The Excel. template is designed to be simple, straightforward, easy to use, and easy to.
The estimate is intended only as a rough guide- line. Before using the. You can change these. Categories worksheet or in the categories text file. The template Welcome page contains instructions for using the workbook.
This section of the documentation repeats that overview, and explains the. Revolve analysis tools associated with Effort Estimation. When you open Worksheet. Effort. Template. Excel. you will first be asked whether to automatically refresh the workbook data. Click Enable automatic refresh to reply.
Excel then prompts you for the two data files required to populate the. The first data file populates the Categories worksheet. If you have run. the analysis tool. Worksheet effort extract - update. If you. haven't run the tool, you can load the default category list from your. Config\Reports\categories. The second data file populates the Data worksheet of the template.
Navigate to the Analysis directory of your project and select the file. If you. run the Worksheet effort extract - POIs tool with its default values, this file.
Excel then loads the files into the worksheet and displays the Welcome. After the categories file is loaded, the Categories worksheet appears. Figure 1. 5- 1: Categories worksheet with categories file loadedwhere: Column A contains the category name, identifying the type of. Column B contains a short description of the issue. Column C contains the coding effort (in man- hours) required to fix. Column D contains the testing effort (in man hours) required to test. Coding and testing effort values should be numeric, and may include.
New category names might be introduced by the analysis tools as they are. Revolve projects. New category names will appear. New category. description required") and with default coding and testing efforts (0).
You can. change these default values either in the Categories worksheet or in the flat. If you change a value in the loaded worksheet, you will need to. This is how the Data worksheet appears after.
Figure 1. 5- 2: Data worksheet. Column A contains the item identifier from the Revolve. Column B contains a category name (issue type) that the analysis.
An item (UID) can have several categories assigned to. In this case, there will be several rows in the worksheet for that item. Column C contains the item type.
Column D contains the item name from the Revolve worksheet. In some cases (COBOL statements, for example), this column will contain the. Columns F through I are computed by the workbook. Column F contains. Coding hours associated with the category name in the Categories worksheet. Column G contains the testing hours from the Categories worksheet. Columns H and I contain the coding and testing hours divided by the.
For example, if the reporting unit is Days, the number. Code Units. The reporting unit is set by a drop- down list in cell F1 of the. Categories sheet. See the section. Modifying the.
Template below. Use the Excel Save as menu item to save the populated. Excel workbook. (. When you have run the migration assessment tool, the Revolve. JCL job, etc.) that is a worksheet issue. Each item in the worksheet is tagged. Category assignments that indicate the types of issues. A category represents a type of worksheet issue or an action item.
In. the Worksheet effort template, each category is associated with a coding effort. Each category also has an associated testing effort, in. You can. change these effort levels in the Categories worksheet. The Worksheet template loads the results of your Worksheet assessment. Revolve worksheet and tallies the number of issues of each type. It looks up the effort levels associated with each category and.
There are. three pivot table reports that display the effort levels and item counts by. Category, Component and the type of object (program, data file, etc.).
The. totals appear at the bottom of each report. The figure below shows an. Figure 1. 5- 3: Report with totals displayed.
You can modify the following items in the template: Effort levels. You can change the coding and testing effort levels associated with. C and D of the Categories worksheet. After changing. the effort levels, you need to use the pivot table Refresh.
Reporting units. You can set the reporting units on the Categories worksheet by. F1, and using the down- arrow to select from a. Figure 1. 5- 4: Set reporting units on Categories worksheet. Again, you need to click Refresh on the pivot.
Sometimes you will need to save the workbook. Adding new reports. You can add new pivot table reports and charts. Data > Pivot table and Chart. To create the files required by the effort estimation worksheet, open. Revolve project and the Analysis Tools list. You might need to.
Worksheet folder to expand the list of worksheet- related. Run the. Worksheet effort extract - . POIs tool to create the extract_< project.
The next step is optional. If you have updated the category names. Excel workbook. If you have introduced new category names into your project, or if you. Worksheet effort extract - update. This will merge the default. POI file and create a new.
Both analysis tools and their settings are described below. You can review the configuration information for the Worksheet Effort. Extract - POIs tool by right- clicking Worksheet effort extract - . POIs and clicking Properties.
The Worksheet effort extract - POIs tool has two steps: Worksheet extract to file. Convert XML to HTMLTo view the properties for each step, right- click the tool entry in. Analysis Tools list, and click Properties. We do not recommend you change any of the Output or Columns settings. Worksheet extract to file step, or any of the Files. Convert XML to HTML step, or you might.
The default settings make it suitable for running with any. Revolve project. Both tools use symbolics, rather than actual project. The symbolic names we support are: %PROJDIR%expands to the Revolve project.
SOLNPROJDIR% expands to the Revolve Enterprise Edition project. PROJNAME%expands to the name of the Revolve. PRODDIR% expands to the directory where you installed. Revolve Enterprise Edition. You can set these file paths to specific values by using the browse. If you do. this, however, you will need to reconfigure the tool for each new.
Revolve project, since the directories are unlikely to be the same for. You can review the configuration information for this tool by.
Worksheet effort extract - update category. Analysis Tools list and clicking. Properties. The tool parameters are: Alternate Category Filedefaults to. Config\Reports\categories. Revolve installation directory. Alternate Extract File defaults to < project. Alternate Output Filedefaults to < project.
Convert category names to upper. Enable as composite tool? The tool also creates a log file and a backup file in the same. Contains the log messages from the tool execution. If. there are any problems with the template, check this file for messages. Copyright © 2. 00. Micro Focus (IP) Ltd.
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