Software Cost Estimation
with COCOMO II
Instructor: Dr. Raymond Madachy
Course Summary
This intermediate level course is designed for software engineering professionals
who are interested in applying the COCOMO II model in their organization.
Emphasis is on practical software economics using a hands-on approach.
Participants should have some previous experience with project planning
and basic knowledge of software metrics. They will develop a thorough understanding
of the revised COCOMO model as applied to modern software development practices.
Students will be taught with the
Costar
tool, and will be knowledgeable enough to use it independently by the end
of the course. Tools other than Costar can also be used in the course.
The objectives of this course are to:
-
Briefly review the field of software cost estimation.
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Provide sufficient introductory material on COCOMO including exercises
and the Costar tool for students to immediately develop quality estimates
for realistic project scenarios.
-
Extend basic estimation concepts for modern development practices including
reuse/re-engineering, incremental and evolutionary development, rapid prototyping,
fourth generation languages and others.
-
Define an integrated cost estimation process, and show how it fits into
larger organizational processes. Provide forms and templates for data collection
and analysis.
-
Show how COCOMO can be used to support software process analysis and improvement,
and how the cost estimation process satisfies requirements of ISO 9000-3
and the SEI Capability Maturity Model.
-
Supplemental handouts including user manuals, model definition manuals,
data forms and templates will be provided so that students can approach
the subject from several perspectives. They will be able to implement a
defined cost estimation process on projects and gain valuable knowledge
for further study and practice depending on their needs.
Course Outline
Day One
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Software cost estimation introduction
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COCOMO II overview
-
model hierarchy
-
basic formulas
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detailed cost and scale driver definitions
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Exercise 1
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COCOMO reuse model
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Exercise 2
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Costar introduction
-
Exercise 3
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Incremental development
-
Exercise 4
Day Two
-
Modeling alternative development processes
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Application Composition and Early Design Models
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Exercise 5
-
Estimate ranges and uncertainty
-
Exercise 6
-
Software Sizing
-
Detailed data definitions
-
Lines of code
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Object points
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Function points
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Effort
-
Model tailoring and calibration
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Cost driver ratings profile
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Exercise 7
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An integrated cost estimation process
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Data collection
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Process maturity and improvement issues
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Exercise 8
-
Wrapup
Supplemental Handouts
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Costar software and user manual
-
Adaptation factor spreadsheet
-
COCOMO II model definition manual
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Data collection and reporting forms
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Cost driver ratings profile form
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Other materials