Current practices of software cost estimation technique in Malaysia context

Abstract

Software cost estimation process is frequently debated by software development community for decades. In order to estimate the cost, numerous methods can be used such as an expert judgment, algorithmic model or parametric, top-down approach, price-to-win, bottom-up and many more. Questionnaire and literature survey were carried out in this study. The result from the survey shows that the expert judgment method, which is based on experience and past estimation histories, is commonly use to estimate cost in software development project while the result from the literature shows that COCOMO II provides accurate result because many variables are being considered including the reuse of parameter besides the expert judgment. As a conclusion, expert judgment and algorithmic model are widely used as methods in software cost estimation process and the process was done manually. The integration of these two methods helps in producing accurate result for cost estimation process. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.