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Effort estimation for agile software development: comparative case studies using COSMIC functional size measurement and story points

Published: 25 October 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Agile methodologies have gained significant popularity among software development organizations during the last decade. Although agile methodologies are regarded as minimizing formal processes, they still utilize an estimation methodology for proper management. Story point is the most common input for agile effort estimation. Story point is an arbitrary measure; it reflects experiences of project participants. On the other hand, functional size is an alternative measure used in practice as an input for effort estimation. In this research, we collect and present the outcomes of three case studies which compared the effectiveness of COSMIC-based and story point based effort estimation in agile context. On selected projects of these organizations, software functional size was measured with COSMIC functional size measurement methodology. Effort prediction models were formed by using COSMIC size and actual effort spent; and the models were tested in terms of their effectiveness. The results show controversial outcomes. For all the cases, COSMIC based estimation was more precise. Therefore, COSMIC is an appropriate measure to estimate the effort in organizations that adopt agile software development. It is also observed that COSMIC allowed for computing productivity which has less disperse distribution than the productivity computed with SP. The data is also provided to help other researchers conduct their own studies.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)On the Accuracy of Effort Estimations based on COSMIC Functional Size Measurement: A Case StudyProceedings of the 18th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement10.1145/3674805.3695402(528-537)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Improving Software Size Estimation Using Data Complexity (Case Study: Research and Community Service Monitoring Apps)2024 11th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics (EECSI)10.1109/EECSI63442.2024.10776530(315-319)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2024
  • (2024)Software Size Measurement Using Data Complexities (Case Study: Marketing Kit Monitoring System)2024 11th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics (EECSI)10.1109/EECSI63442.2024.10776081(331-335)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2024
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      cover image ACM Other conferences
      IWSM Mensura '17: Proceedings of the 27th International Workshop on Software Measurement and 12th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement
      October 2017
      273 pages
      ISBN:9781450348539
      DOI:10.1145/3143434
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Published: 25 October 2017

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      Author Tags

      1. COSMIC
      2. effort estimation
      3. functional size measurement
      4. story points

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      View all
      • (2024)On the Accuracy of Effort Estimations based on COSMIC Functional Size Measurement: A Case StudyProceedings of the 18th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement10.1145/3674805.3695402(528-537)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2024
      • (2024)Improving Software Size Estimation Using Data Complexity (Case Study: Research and Community Service Monitoring Apps)2024 11th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics (EECSI)10.1109/EECSI63442.2024.10776530(315-319)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2024
      • (2024)Software Size Measurement Using Data Complexities (Case Study: Marketing Kit Monitoring System)2024 11th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics (EECSI)10.1109/EECSI63442.2024.10776081(331-335)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2024
      • (2024)Using Machine Learning and Simplified Functional Measures to Estimate Software Development EffortIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.347142812(142505-142523)Online publication date: 2024
      • (2024)Microservice-based projects in agile worldInformation and Software Technology10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107334165:COnline publication date: 1-Jan-2024
      • (2024)Computational intelligence for estimating software development effort: a systematic mapping studyIran Journal of Computer Science10.1007/s42044-024-00178-97:3(607-630)Online publication date: 9-Apr-2024
      • (2024)Optimizing Effort and Cost Estimation: Model Implementation Using Artificial Neural Networks and Taguchi’s Orthogonal Vector PlansRecent Advances in Artificial Intelligence in Cost Estimation in Project Management10.1007/978-3-031-76572-8_9(291-417)Online publication date: 7-Dec-2024
      • (2023)Machine Learning for Accurate Software Development Cost Estimation in Economically and Technically Limited EnvironmentsInternational Journal of Software Science and Computational Intelligence10.4018/IJSSCI.33175315:1(1-24)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2023
      • (2023)Suitability and feasibility study of the project for agilityi-manager’s Journal on Software Engineering10.26634/jse.17.3.1923617:3(13)Online publication date: 2023
      • (2023)An Agile Project Management Supporting Approach for Estimating Story Points in User Stories2023 8th International Conference on Information Technology Research (ICITR)10.1109/ICITR61062.2023.10382930(1-6)Online publication date: 7-Dec-2023
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