Abstract
The Early & Quick sizing techniques, built based on ISO standards, have been proposed to derive an early approximation of software functional size when only high-level and incomplete requirements specifications are available. In the literature, there is a lack of research to evaluate the performance of such approximation sizing methods. This paper presents an experimental study to evaluate their reproducibility and accuracy. The experimental results show both poor reproducibility and large inaccurate approximations. In particular, the analysis of the findings indicates that the practitioners could not classify the functional requirements specifications in accordance to their levels of granularity using the rules and the concepts of the Early & Quick COSMIC technique.
Highlights
Software project managers and technical leaders use all the available information, including the approximation of the software functional size, to estimate the cost and duration of software projects [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
To explore whether or not the experience of the participants had an impact on the results of the experiment, the results are presented in two groups: results of the 8 participants in Table 5 with an average of 12 years of industry experience; and results of the 4 participants in Table 6 with an average of 1 year of industry experience
The results presented in this subsection indicate that use of the rules and concepts of the Early & Quick (E&Q) COSMIC technique by the 12 participants did not help them arrive at an 'accurate' approximation of the functional size of the case study used in the experiment
Summary
Software project managers and technical leaders use all the available information, including the approximation of the software functional size, to estimate the cost and duration of software projects [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. The functional size of software can be measured accurately with these ISO standards when all the functionality details are available, size measurement is much more challenging and imprecise when the initial requirements are high level and lack details: under these conditions functional size can only be approximated and not measured accurately. Desharnais et al [11] recommend using functional size approximation techniques for such 'partially documented' software functional requirements specifications.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTERS & TECHNOLOGY
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
