Fuzzy-class point approach for software effort estimation using various adaptive regression methods

Abstract

The effort involved in developing a software product plays an important role in determining the success or failure. In the context of developing software using object oriented methodologies, traditional methods and metrics were extended to help managers in effort estima-tion activity. Software project managers require a reliable approach for effort estimation. It is especially important during the early stage of the software development life cycle. In this paper, the main goal is to estimate the cost of various software projects using class point approach and optimize the parameters using six types of adaptive regression techniques such as multi-layer perceptron, multivariate adaptive regression splines, projection pursuit regression, constrained topological mapping, K nearest neighbor regression and radial basis function network to achieve better accuracy. Also a comparative analysis of software effort estimation using these various adaptive regression techniques has been provided. By estimating the effort required to develop software projects accurately, we can have softwares with acceptable quality within budget and on planned schedules.