Cost Estimation for Product Line Engineering Using COTS Components

Abstract

Economic models for reuse are very important to organizations aiming to develop software with large scale reuse approaches. In fact, the initial investment is so important that it can discourage managers to commit to those approaches. Thus, economic models can help them to assess the worthiness of such an investment. Product Line Engineering (PLE) seems to be an attractive reuse approach in matter of product quality and time-to-market. Using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) in a PLE approach may have a positive impact. This paper reports on the need for an economic model to quantify the predicted benefits of the PLE software development with the use of COTS components. We introduce a Model for Software Cost Estimation in a Product Line Engineering approach that we denote SoCoEMo-PLE 2. This latter includes the usage of COTS components. The potential benefits of the model are described.