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Effort Estimation Best Practices

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Software Project Effort Estimation

Abstract

It is a human thing to err. Yet, we should learn from mistakes in order not to repeat them. At best, when we learn from others’ mistakes, we do not have to bear their consequences; others already did it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Scott M. Paton, “Four Days with W. Edwards Deming”, The W. Edwards Deming Institute, available at http://deming.org/index.cfm?content=653.

  2. 2.

    http://www.thomsettinternational.com/main/articles/hot/games.htm.

  3. 3.

    Web article “Estimation Games” published by Thomsett International. Last visited in June 2010. http://www.thomsettinternational.com/main/articles/hot/games.htm.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Adam Trendowicz

  2. The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Ross Jeffery

Authors
  1. Adam Trendowicz
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  2. Ross Jeffery
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Further Reading

Further Reading

  • K. El Emam and A. Koru (2008), “A Replicated Survey of IT Software Project Failures,” IEEE Software, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 84–90.

    This article provides an overview of the studies presenting the rates and common causes of software project failures.

  • C. T. Jones (2006), “Social and Technical Reasons for Software Project Failures,” Cross-Talk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 4–9.

    This article discusses the most common causes of failures in software development projects. Two of them are failed estimates and project changes as sources of failed projects. Author goes deeper and analyzes the detailed root causes of the reasons of failed projects.

  • J. S. Armstrong (2001), Principles of forecasting: A handbook for researchers and practitioners. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

    In Chap. 20 of his book, author specifies 139 principles of forecasting. He groups them into 16 categories including formulating forecasting problems, collecting necessary information, implementing forecasting methods, evaluating these methods, using these methods for prediction, and utilizing the predictions these methods deliver. For each practice, the author provides its description and specifies its purpose, conditions, as well as the strength and source of evidence behind the practice.

  • M. Jørgensen and K. Moløkken-Østvold (2003), “A Preliminary Checklist for Software Cost Management,” in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Quality Software, p. 134.

    This paper presents a checklist of best-practice software effort estimation activities. The checklist is a synthesis of experiences gained by multiple software estimation experts, including the authors of the paper. The checklist is structured according to 12 basic effort estimation activities, grouped into 4 major phases of project estimation: preparing for estimation, estimating, applying estimates, and learning from estimation feedback.

  • Wikipedia: List of cognitive biases

    This Wikipedia page briefly lists cognitive biases considered in psychology. It is worth reading and considering which of them can affect the estimation approach we use and how to avoid them.

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Trendowicz, A., Jeffery, R. (2014). Effort Estimation Best Practices. In: Software Project Effort Estimation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03629-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03629-8_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-03628-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-03629-8

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