Effort estimation for mobile applications using use case point (UCP)

Abstract

Estimating the software size and effort helps in early prediction of uncertainties in software development. Determining the size helps in ascertaining the effort, cost, and schedule for entire project. In context of mobile software, the existing techniques for software effort estimations could be adapted as such or with modifications. There are many software size and effort estimation metrics. In this paper, Use Case Point (UCP) metric is aimed for estimating size and effort for mobile application. Five android mobile applications are considered as a case study, and difference in actual effort and estimated effort is evaluated. Modified UCP has been also proposed to improve the results by considering mobile-specific characteristics.