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142 PART TWO MANAGING SOFTWARE PROJECTS

80 software components. Assume average complexity and average developer/envi-
ronment maturity. Use the application composition model with object points.

5.7. Use the software equation to estimate the home security system software.
Assume that Equations (5-4) are applicable and that P = 8000.
5.8. Compare the effort estimates derived in problems 5.4, 5.5, and 5.7. Develop a
single estimate for the project using a three-point estimate. What is the standard devi-
ation and how does it affect your degree of certainty about the estimate?

5.9. Using the results obtained in problem 5.8, determine whether it’s reasonable to
expect that the software can be built within the next six months and how many peo-
ple would have to be used to get the job done.

5.10. Develop a spreadsheet model that implements one or more of the estimation
techniques described in this chapter. Alternatively, acquire one or more on-line mod-
els for estimation from Web-based sources.
5.11. For a project team, develop a software tool that implements each of the esti-
mation techniques developed in this chapter.

5.12. It seems odd that cost and schedule estimates are developed during software
project planning—before detailed software requirements analysis or design has been
conducted. Why do you think this is done? Are there circumstances when it should
not be done?
5.13. Recompute the expected values noted for the decision tree in Figure 5.6
assuming that every branch has a 50–50 probability. Would this change your final
decision?

FURTHER READINGS AND INFORMATION SOURCES
Most software project management books contain discussions of project estimation.
Jones (Estimating Software Costs, McGraw-Hill, 1998) has written the most compre-
hensive treatment of the subject published to date. His book contains models and
data that are applicable to software estimating in every application domain. Roet-
zheim and Beasley (Software Project Cost and Schedule Estimating: Best Practices, Pren-
tice-Hall, 1997) present many useful models and suggest step-by-step guidelines for
generating the best possible estimates.
Phillips [PHI98], Bennatan (On Time, Within Budget: Software Project Management
Practices and Techniques, Wiley, 1995), Whitten (Managing Software Development Proj-
ects: Formula for Success, Wiley, 1995), Wellman (Software Costing, Prentice-Hall, 1992),
and Londeix (Cost Estimation for Software Development, Addison-Wesley, 1987) con-
tain useful information on software project planning and estimation.
Putnam and Myer’s detailed treatment of software cost estimating ([PUT92] and
[PUT97b]) and Boehm's books on software engineering economics ([BOE81] and