Selecting the appropriate machine learning techniques for the prediction of software development costs

Abstract

This paper suggests several estimation guidelines for the choice of a suitable machine learning technique for software development effort estimation. Initially, the paper presents a review of relevant published studies, pointing out pros and cons of specific machine learning methods. The techniques considered are Association Rules, Classification and Regression Trees, Bayesian Belief Networks, Neural Networks and Clustering, and they are compared in terms of accuracy, comprehensibility, applicability, causality and sensitivity. Finally the study proposes guidelines for choosing the appropriate technique, based on the size of the training data and the desirable features of the extracted estimation model. © 2006 International Federation for Information Processing.