A NOVEL EFFORT ESTIMATION MODEL FOR SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT CHANGES DURING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PHASE

Software change impact analysis (CIA) is a key technique to identify the potential ripple effects of the changes to software. Coarse-grained CIA techniques such as file, class and method level techniques often gain less precise change impacts, which are difficult for practical use. Fine-grained CIA techniques, such as slicing, can be used to gain more precise change impacts, but need more time and space cost. In this paper, by combining the features of the coarse-grained technique and the fine-grained technique, a variable-method (VM) correlation-based CIA technique called VM-CIA is proposed to improve the precision of static CIA. First, the VM-CIA technique uses the abstract syntax tree (AST) of program to construct a novel intermediate representation called variable and method triple (VMT), which is used to analyze the correlation between the variables and methods. Second, the VM-CIA technique proposes the single-change impact analysis algorithm and multi-change impact analysis algorithm to compute the impact set based on the VMT representation. In addition, the VM-CIA technique can get a sorted impact set which is more accurate than the existing CIA techniques. The empirical results show that the VM-CIA technique can greatly improve the precision (19%) over traditional the CIA techniques, while at the cost of a little recall (5%). Moreover, the empirical studies also show that the VM-CIA technique predicts a ranked list of potential impact results according to the distance measure, which can greatly facilitate the practical use.

In software development phase software artifacts are not in consistent states such as: some of the class artifacts are fully developed some are half developed, some are major developed, some are minor developed and some are not developed yet. At this stage allowing too many software requirement changes may possibly delay in project delivery and increase development budget of the software. On the other hand rejecting too many changes may increase customer dissatisfaction. Software change effort estimation is one of the most challenging and important activity that helps software project managers in accepting or rejecting changes during software development phase. This paper extends our previous works on developing a software requirement change effort estimation model prototype tool for the software development phase. The significant achievements of the tool are demonstrated through an extensive experimental validation using several case studies. The experimental analysis shows improvement in the estimation accuracy over current change effort estimation models.

Background. Currently there are several definitions of measures that should represent the size of software functional requirements. These measures have gained a quite relevant role, since they are one of the few basis upon which effort estimation can be based. However, traditional Functional Size Measures do not take into account the amount and complexity of the elaboration required, concentrating instead on the amount of data accessed or moved. This is a problem, when it comes to effort estimation, since the amount and complexity of the required data elaborations affect the implementation effort, but are not adequately represented by the current measures (including the standardized ones).

Software development effort estimation is one of the most crucial activities in software engineering. Effort estimation permits managers and software engineers to anticipate, forecast, and precisely quote the schedule, budget and manpower requirements. By accurately estimating the effort; software projects can be saved from under run or over run. In this paper we have summarized and then analyzed the past work of software effort estimation in a systematic way. 10 researches were surveyed and explained briefly that how they are contributing towards solving the effort estimation problem in terms of time, cost or test. It also emphasizes that various effort estimation models have different pros and cons and can be used in different context on basis of different types of historical data. The survey discovered the most popular models used for effort prediction are supervised learning algorithms. The trends identified through this survey can help in exploring the potential research areas.

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Software development effort estimation (SDEE) is one of the main tasks in software project management. It is crucial for a project manager to efficiently predict the effort or cost of a software project in a bidding process, since overestimation will lead to bidding loss and underestimation will cause the company to lose money. Several SDEE models exist; machine learning models, especially neural network models, are among the most prominent in the field. In this study, four different neural network models: Multilayer Perceptron, General Regression Neural Network, Radial Basis Function Neural Network, and Cascade Correlation Neural Network are compared with each other based on: (1) predictive accuracy centered on the Mean Absolute Error criterion, (2) whether such a model tends to overestimate or underestimate, and (3) how each model classifies the importance of its inputs. Industrial datasets from the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) are used to train and validate the four models. The main ISBSG dataset was filtered and then divided into five datasets based on the productivity value of each project. Results show that the four models tend to overestimate in 80percent of the datasets, and the significance of the model inputs varies based on the selected model. Furthermore, the Cascade Correlation Neural Network outperforms the other three models in the majority of the datasets constructed on the Mean Absolute Residual criterion.

Analogy‐based estimation (ABE) is the most commonly applied method for estimating using software. Although there are several analogy‐based estimation techniques, there is no consistent conclusion of which technique is the best in all circumstances. Therefore, this article presents an evolutionary ensemble ABE (EEABE) for software cost estimation. Ensemble effort estimation (EEE) models forecast software development endeavors through using multiple estimation methods. In this article, EEABE combines GA as an evolutionary algorithm with six ABE models. The proposed method has been evaluated on four well‐known datasets comprising Maxwell, Albrecht, Kemerer, and Desharnais, by the k‐fold cross‐validation technique and based on the performance criteria of MRE, MMRE, MDMRE, BMMRE, and PRED(0.25). The simulation results demonstrate that the use of EEABE increases the accuracy of estimation and reduces the cost. Besides, EEABE is a flexible and adaptable model with any type of dataset and software development project, and it has been optimized with the possibility of using various ABE techniques.

Software cost and time estimation is the process of estimating the cost and time required to develop a software system. Software cost and time estimation supports the planning and tracking of software projects. Effectively controlling the expensive investment of software development is one of the important issues in software project management. Estimating software development cost with high precision is still a great challenge for project managers, because it allows for considerable financial and strategic planning. Software cost estimation refers to the predictions of the likely amount of effort, time, and staffing levels required to build a software system. A very helpful form of cost estimation is the one made at an early stage during a project, when the costing of the project is proposed for approval. However, estimates at the early stages of the development are the most difficult to obtain. In this paper a novel Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) based on soft computing approach is proposed for software cost estimation. This model carries some of the desirable features of neural networks approach, such as learning ability and good interpretability, while maintaining the merits of the COCOMO model. Unlike the standard neural networks approach, the proposed model can be interpreted and validated by experts, and has good generalisation capability. The model deals effectively with imprecise and uncertain input and enhances the reliability of software cost estimates. From the experimental results, it was concluded that, by the proposed neural network model, the accuracy of cost estimation can be improved and the estimated cost can be very close to the actual cost.

The accurate estimation of software development effort has major implications for the management of software development in the industry. Underestimates lead to time pressures that may compromise full functional development and thorough testing of the software product. On the other hand, overestimates can result in over allocation of development resources and personnel [1]. Many models for effort estimation have been developed during the past years; some of them use parametric methods with some degree of success, other kind of methods belonging to the machine learning techniques, such as Neural Networks (NN), have been also studied in this field showing more accurate estimations, and finally the Genetic programming (GP) techniques are being considered as promising tools for the prediction of effort estimation. In this work we are to compare the behaviour of GP and Genetic Algorithms (GA) to the Neural Network approach (backpropagation).

Purpose The study aims to investigate the application of the data element market in software project management, focusing on improving effort estimation by addressing challenges faced by traditional methods. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a solution based on feature selection, utilizing the data element market and reinforcement learning-based algorithms to enhance the accuracy of software effort estimation. It explores the application of the MARLFS algorithm, customizing improvements to the algorithm and reward function. Findings This study demonstrates that the proposed approach achieves more precise estimation compared to traditional methods, leveraging feature selection to guide project management in software development. Originality/value This study contributes to the field by offering a novel approach that com-bines the data element market, machine learning, and feature selection to improve software effort estimation, addressing limitations of traditional methods and providing insights for future research in project management.

FCA–CIA: An approach of using FCA to support cross-level change impact analysis for object oriented Java programs

Software effort estimation is a crucial phase in software project management. Accuracy of estimation directly affects project success or failure. Managers try to estimate proper effort resources and this is a challenging issue for management. Having a set of tools and methodologies, estimation process can be made better. COCOMO is one of the most used model which has a parametric form. Also, artificial neural networks (ANN) are combined with COCOMO and these methods increased overall performance. However, effort estimation process generally produces one output; estimation value. It is a well-known issue that a project manager must keep in the mind that any estimation must have some upper and lower limits, boundaries. In this paper, a novel method, combining COCOMO used ANN with K-Means is used to estimate effort and possible boundaries. ANN output is used as input to K-Means sets and proper set value is calculated, including possible lower and upper effort estimation value. Experimental results are shown that proposed method has acceptable results over ANN and COCOMO.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to make an attempt to find good values of onsite–offshore team strength; number of hours of communication between business users and onsite team and between onsite and offshore team to reduce cost and improve schedule for re-engineering projects in global software development environment. Design/methodology/approach – The system dynamics technique is used for simulation model construction and policy run experimentation. The experts from Indian software outsourcing industry were consulted for model construction, validation and analysis of policy run results in both co-located and distributed software development environment. Findings – The study results show that there is a drop in the overall team productivity in outsourcing environment by considering the offshore options. But the project cost can be reduced by employing the offshore team for coding and testing work only with minimal training for imparting business knowledge. The research results show that there is a potential to save project cost by being flexible in project schedule. Research limitations/implications – The study found that there could be substantial cost saving for re-engineering projects with a loss of project schedule when an appropriate onsite–offshore combination is used. The quality and productivity drop, however, were rather small for such combinations. The cost savings are high when re-engineering work is sent to offshore location entirely after completion of requirement analysis work at onsite location and providing training to offshore team in business knowledge The research findings show that there is potential to make large cost savings by being flexible in project schedule for re-engineering projects. Practical implications – The software project manager can use the model results to divide the software team between onsite and offshore location during various phases of software development in distributed environment. Originality/value – The study is novel as there is little attempt at finding the team distribution between onsite and offshore location in global software development environment.

Accepting too many software change requests could contribute to expense and delay in project delivery. On the other hand rejecting the changes may increase customer dissatisfaction. Software project management might use a reliable estimation on potential impacted artifacts to decide whether to accept or reject the changes. In software development phase, an assumption that all classes in the class artifact are completely developed is impractical compared to software maintenance phase. This is due to some classes in the class artifact are still under development or partially developed. This paper is a continuous effort from our previous work on combining between static and dynamic analysis techniques for impact analysis. We have converted the approach to an automated tool and call it a CIAT (Change Impact Analysis Tool). The significant achievements of the tool are demonstrated through an extensive experimental validation using several case studies. The experimental analysis shows improvement in the accuracy over current impact analysis results.

Effort estimation is the process of predicting a software's likely cost and development time. Estimating software development effort is still a complex problem that receives a lot of research attention. The accuracy with which the effort necessary for software development is estimated, and it is a significant success element in software project management. The estimated effort should be roughly equal to the actual effort in a good software estimation model. Accurate estimation enables managers to allocate resources for the planning and coordination of all activities. In this paper the effort estimation for small size projects involving technical and analytical aspects of engineering intent. The estimation of time resources is done in three steps firstly Identification of seven novel traits of software (LOC, N&C, CGPA, R, CC, AC, FP). Secondly PCA was implemented to decide the significant parameters among the software features. Lastly linear regression and polynomial regression models were developed using the significant features predicted by the PCA. The result of evaluation of the two models are encouraging with the minimum RMSE of 32-204 minutes and maximum regression coefficients(r <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ) of 0.95-0.98