58,047 research outputs found
Web Framework Points: an Effort Estimation Methodology for Web Application Development
Software effort estimation is one of the most critical components of a successful software project: completing the project on time and within budget is the classic challenge for all project managers. However, predictions made by project managers about their project are often inexact:
software projects need, on average, 30-40% more effort than estimated. Research on software development effort and cost estimation has been abundant and diversified since the end of the Seventies. The topic is still very much alive, as shown by the numerous works existing in the
literature. During these three years of research activity, I had the opportunity to go into the knowledge and
to experiment some of the main software effort estimation methodologies existing in literature. In particular, I focused my research on Web effort estimation. As stated by many authors, the existing models for classic software applications are not well suited to measure the effort of Web applications, that unfortunately are not exempt from cost and time overruns, as traditional software
projects. Initially, I compared the effectiveness of Albrecht's classic Function Points (FP) and Reifer's
Web Objects (WO) metrics in estimating development effort for Web applications, in the context of an Italian software company. I tested these metrics on a dataset made of 24 projects provided by the software company between 2003 and 2010. I compared the estimate data with the real effort of each project completely developed, using the MRE (Magnitude of Relative Error) method. The experimental results showed a high error in estimates when using WO metric, which proved to be more effective than the FP metric in only two occurrences. In the context of this first work, it
appeared evident that effort estimation depends not only on functional size measures, but other factors had to be considered, such as model accuracy and other challenges specific to Web applications; though the former represent the input that influences most the final results. For this
reason, I revised the WO methodology, creating the RWO methodology. I applied this methodology to the same dataset of projects, comparing the results to those gathered by applying the FP and WO methods. The experimental results showed that the RWO method reached effort prediction results
that are comparable to – and in 4 cases even better than – the FP method. Motivated by the dominant use of Content Management Framework (CMF) in Web application
development and the inadequacy of the RWO method when used with the latest Web application development tools, I finally chose to focus my research on the study of a new Web effort estimation methodology for Web applications developed with a CMF. I proposed a new methodology for
effort estimation: the Web CMF Objects one. In this methodology, new key elements for analysis and planning were identified; they allow to define every important step in the development of a Web application using a CMF. Following the RWO method approach, the estimated effort of a Web project stems from the sum of all elements, each of them weighted with its own complexity. I tested
the whole methodology on 9 projects provided by three different Italian software companies,
comparing the value of the effort estimate to the actual, final effort of each project, in man-days. I
then compared the effort estimate both with values obtained from the Web CMF Objects methodology and with those obtained from the respective effort estimation methodologies of the three companies, getting excellent results: a value of Pred(0.25) equal to 100% for the Web CMF Objects methodology.
Recently, I completed the presentation and assessment of Web CMF Objects methodology, upgrading the cost model for the calculation of effort estimation. I named it again Web Framework Points methodology. I tested the updated methodology on 19 projects provided by three software
companies, getting good results: a value of Pred(0.25) equal to 79%.
The aim of my research is to contribute to reducing the estimation error in software development projects developed through Content Management Frameworks, with the purpose to
make the Web Framework Points methodology a useful tool for software companies
ESTIMATING EFFORT FOR LOW-CODE APPLICATIONS
Two issues continually plaguing the software industry are software size calculation and project effort estimation. Incorrect estimates may lead to inappropriate allocation of resources (people), shortage of time, insufficient funds, and possibly project failure. The purpose of this study is to explore current methods of software effort estimation and the applicability to low-code application development. The study seeks to answer the research question: Can the current methods be used to estimate effort for applications built with low-code platforms? The goal is to analyze some of the popular estimation methods to see if they can be applied to low-code application development
Ranking relations using analogies in biological and information networks
Analogical reasoning depends fundamentally on the ability to learn and
generalize about relations between objects. We develop an approach to
relational learning which, given a set of pairs of objects
,
measures how well other pairs A:B fit in with the set . Our work
addresses the following question: is the relation between objects A and B
analogous to those relations found in ? Such questions are
particularly relevant in information retrieval, where an investigator might
want to search for analogous pairs of objects that match the query set of
interest. There are many ways in which objects can be related, making the task
of measuring analogies very challenging. Our approach combines a similarity
measure on function spaces with Bayesian analysis to produce a ranking. It
requires data containing features of the objects of interest and a link matrix
specifying which relationships exist; no further attributes of such
relationships are necessary. We illustrate the potential of our method on text
analysis and information networks. An application on discovering functional
interactions between pairs of proteins is discussed in detail, where we show
that our approach can work in practice even if a small set of protein pairs is
provided.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS321 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
The LIFE2 final project report
Executive summary: The first phase of LIFE (Lifecycle Information For E-Literature) made a major contribution to
understanding the long-term costs of digital preservation; an essential step in helping
institutions plan for the future. The LIFE work models the digital lifecycle and calculates the
costs of preserving digital information for future years. Organisations can apply this process
in order to understand costs and plan effectively for the preservation of their digital
collections
The second phase of the LIFE Project, LIFE2, has refined the LIFE Model adding three new
exemplar Case Studies to further build upon LIFE1. LIFE2 is an 18-month JISC-funded
project between UCL (University College London) and The British Library (BL), supported
by the LIBER Access and Preservation Divisions. LIFE2 began in March 2007, and
completed in August 2008.
The LIFE approach has been validated by a full independent economic review and has
successfully produced an updated lifecycle costing model (LIFE Model v2) and digital
preservation costing model (GPM v1.1). The LIFE Model has been tested with three further
Case Studies including institutional repositories (SHERPA-LEAP), digital preservation
services (SHERPA DP) and a comparison of analogue and digital collections (British Library
Newspapers). These Case Studies were useful for scenario building and have fed back into
both the LIFE Model and the LIFE Methodology.
The experiences of implementing the Case Studies indicated that enhancements made to the
LIFE Methodology, Model and associated tools have simplified the costing process. Mapping
a specific lifecycle to the LIFE Model isn’t always a straightforward process. The revised and
more detailed Model has reduced ambiguity. The costing templates, which were refined
throughout the process of developing the Case Studies, ensure clear articulation of both
working and cost figures, and facilitate comparative analysis between different lifecycles.
The LIFE work has been successfully disseminated throughout the digital preservation and
HE communities. Early adopters of the work include the Royal Danish Library, State
Archives and the State and University Library, Denmark as well as the LIFE2 Project partners.
Furthermore, interest in the LIFE work has not been limited to these sectors, with interest in
LIFE expressed by local government, records offices, and private industry. LIFE has also
provided input into the LC-JISC Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Economic Sustainability of
Digital Preservation.
Moving forward our ability to cost the digital preservation lifecycle will require further
investment in costing tools and models. Developments in estimative models will be needed to
support planning activities, both at a collection management level and at a later preservation
planning level once a collection has been acquired. In order to support these developments a
greater volume of raw cost data will be required to inform and test new cost models. This
volume of data cannot be supported via the Case Study approach, and the LIFE team would
suggest that a software tool would provide the volume of costing data necessary to provide a
truly accurate predictive model
Economic evaluation of LIFE methodology
Background:
The LIFE project (Lifecycle Information For E-Literature) was carried out during 2004-2006
by a consortium consisting of The British Library and University College London Library
Services . The project was joint venture funded by JISC under the programme area
Institutional Management Support and Collaboration. The project has received favourable
feedback, for instance during a workshop organised at the end of it, and JISC has agreed to
fund a second phase during 2007-2008. The consortium has been strengthened by three
associate partners (SHERPA-LEAP Consortium, SHERPA-DP and the Medical Research
Council). In addition some funds were reserved for the use of an outside economic consultant
for an evaluation of the life-cycle models that emerged as the key results from the first phase.
The LIFE-2 project consists of five work packages, and this report is part of the first of these.
The objective of WP 1 is formulated in the LIFE
2
Project proposal as follows:
Validation of the economic modelling and methodology for the Lifecycle and Generic
Preservation formulae developed in Phase 1 of the LIFE project, with technical and
presentational development of the models.
Cloudlake Consulting Oy has been commissioned by the consortium to carry out this
validation. The report has been written by Bo-Christer Björk. He is professor of Information
Systems Science at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in
Helsinki, Finland. He has been conducting research concerning the scientific publishing
process since 2000 and has published several peer reviewed journal articles as well as
conference papers on the subject. He is often an invited speaker at international workshops in
this area
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