Controlling Lost Opportunity Costs in Agile Development – the Basic Lost Opportunity Estimation Model for Requirements Scoping

Abstract

We present a model for estimating the final keep/cancel decision point, on a per-feature basis, for scope inclusion in a future release. The Basic Lost Opportunity Estimation Model (BLOEM), based on data from a company that uses an agile-inspired software development model, supports feature selection when the time-dependent business value estimates change as the requirements analysis progresses. The initial BLOEM validation, conducted on a set of 166 features, suggests that the model can valuable input to the feature selection process for a given release, helping to control lost opportunity costs due to feature cancellation. Limitations of BLOEM are discussed and issues for further research are presented