Study of Effort Calculation and Estimation in Open Source Projects

Abstract

It is important to carefully monitor the development status of an open source projects because of the large number of people involved in the projects. One of the methods for evaluating project stability is earned value management (EVM), applying EVM to projects requires time-series effort data. However, there are few researches on the calculation of time-series effort data for open source projects, because open source projects do not manage effort as a whole. In this research, we have examined the validity of the calculation method and results of the time-series effort data in the open source projects. In addition, we have verified similarity of proprietary software development projects to open source projects in terms of effort. In particular, the similarity between open source projects and proprietary software development projects is verified by applying the effort data of open source projects to the software reliability growth model (SRGM).