Abstract
The International Software Benchmarking and Standards Group (ISBSG) data-base was used to build estimation models for estimating software functional test effort. The analysis of the data revealed three test productivity patterns representing economies or diseconomies of scale and these patterns served as a basis for investigating the characteristics of the corresponding projects. Three groups of projects related to the three different productivity patterns, characterized by domain, team size, elapsed time and rigor of verification and validation carried out during development, were found to be statistically significant. Within each project group, the variations in test effort can be explained, in addition to functional size, by 1) the processes executed during development, and 2) the processes adopted for testing. Portfolios of estimation models were built using combinations of the three independent variables. Performance of the estimation models built using the function point method innovated by the Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC) known as COSMIC Function Points, and the one advocated by the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) known as IFPUG Function Points, were compared to evaluate the impact of these respective sizing methods on test effort estimation.
Highlights
This paper reports on a set of estimation models designed with data chosen from the ISBSG repository consisting of functional sizes reported both in IFPUG function points [1] and COSMIC function points
The value of median magnitude of relative error (MedMRE) ranging between 0.22 and 0.28 shows that the error levels between the estimate and actual are within the range of 22% to 28% for 50% or less of the samples, which is practical considering the multi-organizational data used for building the models
The variations in test effort could be explained, apart from the functional size, by 1) the processes executed during the development, and 2) the processes adopted for testing
Summary
This paper reports on a set of estimation models designed with data chosen from the ISBSG repository consisting of functional sizes reported both in IFPUG function points [1] and COSMIC function points. These estimation models were evaluated using criteria for measuring outputs from estimation models. There is a growing body of work on the use of the COSMIC function points [4] [5] for estimation and performance measurement of software development projects which can be adapted for estimating software test effort too.
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