Bayesian Hyperparameter Optimization and Ensemble Learning for Machine Learning Models on Software Effort Estimation

Abstract

In recent decades, various software effort estimation (SEE) algorithms have been suggested. Unfortunately, generating high-precision accuracy is still a major challenge in the context of SEE. The use of traditional techniques and parametric approaches is largely inaccurate because they produce biased and subjective accuracy. Meanwhile, none of the machine learning methods performed well. This study applies the AdaBoost ensemble learning method and random forest (RF), on the other hand the Bayesian optimization method is applied to determine the hyperparameters of this model. The PROMISE repository and the ISBSG dataset were used to build the SEE model. The developed model was comprehensively compared with four machine learning methods (classification and regression tree, k-nearest neighbor, multilayer perceptron, and support vector regression) under 3-fold cross validation (CV). It can be seen that the RF method based on AdaBoost ensemble learning and bayesian optimization outperforms this approach. In addition, the AdaBoost-based model assigns a feature importance rating, which makes it a promising tool in software effort prediction.