An effective software effort estimation based on functional points using soft computing techniques

Abstract

Still in this 21st century, it is a great challenge for the Project Managers to make the software projects successful. The success of software projects relies on how accurately the estimates of effort, cost and duration can be made. Most of the standard surveys stated that only 30-40% of software projects are successful and the remaining are either challenged, cancelled or failed. One of the key reasons for failure of projects is inaccurate estimations. Effort Estimation should be carried out in the early stage of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and it is an essential activity to establish scope & business case of software project management activities. Over estimation or under estimation leads to failure of the software projects. Many of the stakeholders are expecting the estimation of development effort in early stage for their better bidding. There are many methodologies like KLOC, Use Case Points (UCP), Class Points, Story Points, Test Case Points, Functional Points (FP), etc. to estimate effort in the software development. To estimate the effort in the early stage of software development, UCP, Story Points and FP are more preferable. The methods for estimation may be adopted based on the project complexity, functionality, approaches etc. In order to achieve an efficient and reliable effort estimate and thereby have a proper execution of software development plan, Soft Computing Techniques can be adopted in the various organizations and different research domains. In this paper, Functional Points have been selected for effort estimation and implemented using soft computing techniques like Neural Networks and Neuro Fuzzy techniques. After examination the results are evaluated using different error measures like VAF,MMRE,RAE, RRSE and PRED. Basing on results it is observed that the Neuro Fuzzy techniques provided better effort estimates.