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SE-430

Software Project Management

Software Cost & Effort Estimation
Week 10

Lesson Objectives
• To learn:
‒ How is a cost and effort is estimated for a project?
‒ What are the different cost estimation techniques?

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Software cost estimation

• Software productivity estimation
‒ help to define the project cost and schedule
‒ Normally based on measuring attributes of the software and dividing this by the total
effort required for development.
‒ Software metrics have two main types:
 Size-related software metrics.
• These metrics are related to the size of software.
• The most frequently used size-related metric is lines of delivered source code.
 Function-related software metrics.
• These are related to the overall functionality of the software.
• For example, function points and object points are metrics of this type.

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Parameters to be Estimated
• Based on the estimated size, two
parameters are estimated:
• Effort
• Duration
• Effort is measured in person-months:
Size • One person-month is the effort an
individual can typically put in a month.

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Measure of Work
• The project size is a measure of the problem complexity in terms of the effort
and time required to develop the product.
• Two metrics are used to measure project size:
‒ Source Lines of Code (SLOC)
‒ Function point (FP)
• FP is favoured over SLOC:
‒ Because of the many shortcomings of SLOC.

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Function Point Analysis

• FPA considers two things for effort estimates
‒ First, it determines size of the project in terms of the number of function points (FPs)
‒ Second, it determines productivity of the project team
• Project size is derived from customer specifications (Requirement Document)
‒ Based on customer requirements, an estimate is made for the number of functions to be built
‒ These functions are contained in either internal or external files
‒ Each of these functions has interfaces for
 communication with internal and external files
 communication with devices
‒ The number of parameters for each of these functions is determined
‒ The complexity of these functions is also determined

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Function Point Analysis (FPA) technique

• Quantifies the functions contained within software in terms that are meaningful to
the software users.
‒ FPs consider the number of functions being developed based on the requirements
specification.
‒ Functions
 There are two types of functions −
• Data Functions
• Transaction Functions
‒ Data Functions
 There are two types of data functions −
 Internal Logical Files
 External Interface Files
‒ Data Functions are made up of internal and external resources that affect the system.

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Data Function
• Internal Logical File (ILF):
‒ A user identifiable group of logically related data
‒ control information that resides entirely within the application boundary.
 Data that is stored and maintained within the boundary of the application (Database
Table) .

• External Interface File (EIF)

‒ A user identifiable group of logically related data
‒ control information that is used by the application for reference purposes only.
 data that is not maintained by your application.

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Transaction Function
• Transaction Functions
‒ There are three types of transaction
functions.
 External Inputs- EI
• how an application gets information
 External Outputs – EO
• an EO may update an ILF
 External Inquiries - EQ
• both input and output components
that result in data retrieval

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Function Point Count Process Steps

Determine Calculate
Boundary and
function count unadjusted FP
scope of count
type count

Calculate Apply value

adjusted FP adjustment
count factor

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Function Point Analysis Components

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Function Count Calculation

Measure Count Low avg High

# of user input X 3 4 6 =

# of user output X 4 5 7 =

# of user inquiry X 3 4 6 =

# of files X 7 10 15 =

# of external interfaces X 5 7 10 =

Count = Total
UFP
Sum the multiplied “Information Domain Value” with the Weighting Factors; “Unadjusted
Function Point” (UFP).

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Function Point Analysis Process

• Compute the overall “Value Adjustment
Factor (VAF) Factor Value
Backup & Recovery 4
‒ VAF = [0.65 + (.01 * Sum of Factors)] Data communications 2
Distributed processing 0
 0.65 determined by historical productivity Performance critical 4
avg; 6.5 FP/per man Existing operating environment 3
Online-data entry 4
 .01 ~ dividing by 100 as required by the Input transaction over multiple screens 5
ILF's updated online 3
formula Information domain values complex 5
internal processing complex 5
• Compute the Function Point value (FP) Code designed for reuse 4
Conversion/installation in design 3
‒ FP = count total * VAF Multiple installation 5
Application designed for change 5
Value Adjustment Factor: 1.17

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Example: A data flow model for SafeHome Software

Files
Test Sensor Sensors
EI 3 PW, Panic, Activate
EO 2 Zone & Sensor Inq Password
Zone Setting
EQ 2 msg & Sensor status Zone Inquiry
Messages
ILF 1 Sys Conf Data Sensor Inquiry User
User Sensor Status User
EIF 4 Test Sensor, Zone Interaction
Set Panic Button Function
Activate / De-Activate
Activate / De-

Monitoring &
Alarm alert Responses
Password, sensors…

System Configuration Data

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Example: A data flow model for SafeHome Software

Information Domain Value Weighting Factor

Count Simple Average Complex Total
External Inputs (EI) 3 3 4 6 9
External Outputs (EO) 2 4 5 7 8
External Inquiries (EQ) 2 3 4 6 6
Internal Logical Files (ILF) 1 7 10 15 7
External Interface Files (EIF) 4 5 7 10 20
UFP: 50
𝑭𝑷 = 𝑼𝑭𝑷 ∗ 𝑪𝑨𝑭 𝒐𝒓 (𝑽𝑨𝑭)
𝑽𝑨𝑭 𝒐𝒓 𝑪𝑨𝑭 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟓 + (𝟎. 𝟎𝟏 ∗ 𝑺𝒖𝒎 𝑭𝒊)
𝑺𝒖𝒎 𝑭𝒊, Complexity Factors
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Example: A data flow model for SafeHome Software

Scale Complexity Factor Value
0 No influence Backup & Recovery 4
1 Incidental Data communications 2
2 Moderate Distributed processing 0
3 Avg
Performance critical 4
Existing operating environment 3
4 Significant
Online-data entry 4
5 Essential Input transaction over multiple screens 5
𝑪𝑨𝑭 𝒐𝒓 𝑽𝑨𝑭 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟓 + (𝟎. 𝟎𝟏 ∗ 𝑺𝒖𝒎 𝑭𝒊) ILF's updated online 3
Information domain values complex 5
𝑺𝒖𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝑭𝒊 = 𝟓𝟐 internal processing complex 5
Code designed for reuse 4
𝑪𝑨𝑭 𝒐𝒓 𝑽𝑨𝑭 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟓 + (𝟎. 𝟎𝟏 ∗ 𝟓𝟐) = 𝟏. 𝟏𝟕 Conversion/installation in design 3
Multiple installation 5
Application designed for change 5
ValueAdjustment
Value Value
Adjustment
Adjustment
Factor:
Factor:Factor:
1.17
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Example: A data flow model for SafeHome Software

𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒂: 𝐹𝑃 = 𝑈𝐴𝐹 ∗ 𝑉𝐴𝐹 Assumptions:

Example continued… Rs 8,000 fully burdened rate
• 𝑭𝑷 = 50 ∗ 1.17 1 FP = 60 LOC
• 𝑭𝑷 = 58.5 Approximately 6.5 FP/pm (pm = productivity month)
3 errors per FP in Req & Design
4 errors per FP in Testing
Computations:
• LOC = 58.5 * 60 = 3513 LOC
• 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑠 = 58.5 / 6.5 = 7.69 𝑀𝑀
• 𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 8000 ∗ 7.69 = 61,520
• 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑃 = 8000 / 6.5 = 1230.76

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Reference
• Project Management Body of Knowledge
‒ Chapter 7
• Software Project Management – Bob Hughes & Mike Cotterell
‒ Chapter 3

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