TITLE:
Fine-Grained Work Element Standardization for Project Effort Estimation
AUTHORS:
Peraphon Sophatsathit
KEYWORDS:
Project Effort Estimation, Work Element, Symbolic Flow Map, Latency Cost, Software Process Automation
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Software Engineering and Applications,
Vol.7 No.8,
July
22,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Traditional project effort
estimation utilizes development models that span the entire project life cycle
and thus culminates estimation errors. This exploratory research is the first
attempt to break each project activity down to smaller work elements. There are
eight work elements, each of which is being defined and symbolized with visually
distinct shape. The purpose is to standardize the operations associated with
the development process in the form of a visual symbolic flow map. Hence,
developers can streamline their work systematically. Project effort estimation
can be determined based on these standard work elements that not only help
identify essential cost drivers for estimation, but also reduce latency cost to
enhance estimation efficiency. Benefits of the proposed work element scheme are
project visibility, better control for immediate pay-off and, in long term
management, standardization for software process automation.