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Cost estimation in software engineering

Cost estimation in software engineering is typically concerned with the financial spend on the effort to develop and test the software, this can also include requirements review, maintenance, training, managing and buying extra equipment, servers and software. Many methods have been developed for estimating software costs for a given project. Methods for estimation in software engineering include these principles: Analysis effort method Parametric Estimating The Planning Game (from Extreme Programming) ITK method, also known as Method CETIN Proxy-based estimating (PROBE) (from the Personal Software Process) Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) Putnam model, also known as SLIM PRICE Systems Founders of Commercial Parametric models that estimates the scope, cost, effort and schedule for software projects. SEER-SEM Parametric Estimation of Effort, Schedule, Cost, Risk. Minimum time and staffing concepts based on Brooks's law The Use Case Points method (UCP) Weighted Micro Function Points (WMFP) Wideband Delphi Most cost software development estimation techniques involve estimating or measuring software size first and then applying some knowledge of historical of cost per unit of size. Software size is typically sized in SLOC, Function Point or Agile story points.

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Software development effort estimation
In software development, effort estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic amount of effort (expressed in terms of person-hours or money) required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and noisy input. Effort estimates may be used as input to project plans, iteration plans, budgets, investment analyses, pricing processes and bidding rounds. Published surveys on estimation practice suggest that expert estimation is the dominant strategy when estimating software development effort.
Function point
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COCOMO
The Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) is a procedural software cost estimation model developed by Barry W. Boehm. The model parameters are derived from fitting a regression formula using data from historical projects (63 projects for COCOMO 81 and 163 projects for COCOMO II). The constructive cost model was developed by Barry W. Boehm in the late 1970s and published in Boehm's 1981 book Software Engineering Economics as a model for estimating effort, cost, and schedule for software projects.
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