Effort estimation methods for ERP projects based on function points: A case study

27th International Workshop on Software Measurement and 12th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, IWSM Mensura 2017; Gothenburg; Sweden; 25 October 2017 through 27 October 2017Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems evolve at a rapid pace based on customer and industry expectations. As a result, historic project data for these kinds of projects lose their value especially for analogy based estimation methods. In this rapidly evolving domain, function point based methods might provide a sound alternative for ERP effort estimation. This paper presents the results obtained by applying three methods published in the literature in which function points are used as an input for ERP effort estimation. The evaluation of these methods with respect to their measurement processes and estimation errors are presented; their advantages and disadvantages are discussed

Effort estimation for agile software development: Comparative case studies using COSMIC functional size measurement and story points

27th International Workshop on Software Measurement and 12th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement, IWSM Mensura 2017; Gothenburg; Sweden; 25 October 2017 through 27 October 2017Agile methodologies have gained significant popularity among software development organizations during the last decade. Although agile methodologies are regarded as minimizing formal processes, they still utilize an estimation methodology for proper management. Story point is the most common input for agile effort estimation. Story point is an arbitrary measure; it reflects experiences of project participants. On the other hand, functional size is an alternative measure used in practice as an input for effort estimation. In this research, we collect and present the outcomes of three case studies which compared the effectiveness of COSMIC-based and story point based effort estimation in agile context. On selected projects of these organizations, software functional size was measured with COSMIC functional size measurement methodology. Effort prediction models were formed by using COSMIC size and actual effort spent; and the models were tested in terms of their effectiveness. The results show controversial outcomes. For all the cases, COSMIC based estimation was more precise. Therefore, COSMIC is an appropriate measure to estimate the effort in organizations that adopt agile software development. It is also observed that COSMIC allowed for computing productivity which has less disperse distribution than the productivity computed with SP. The data is also provided to help other researchers conduct their own studies