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From: davis@mwunix.mitre.org (David Davis)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Software Cost Estimation
Message-ID: <127277@linus.mitre.org>
Date: 14 Dec 90 12:37:22 GMT
References: <5676@taylord>
Sender: usenet@linus.mitre.org
Organization: Mitre Corporation, McLean, VA
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COCMO assumes a lot.  It's parameters are basically drawn from 
anectodal information and are essentially quantifiactions of 
qualitative judgements.  Of course estimating lines of code is 
difficult very early in a development program.  Its espessciall 
inaccurate if the project is at all experimental or involves 
many new factorss, i.e., language, business area, design approach, 
or hardware.  Also, any of these factors, and others, can be 
familiar to the industry at large but new to a particular 
set of project personnel..thats an experiment.

Another model that is used is Price-S.  It bases its estiamtes on 
historical data from similar projects, by category.  It is much 
less dependent on estimating lines of code for modules no one has 
yet designed as is COCOMO.  

However, this area is still a black art and is subject to the normal 
kinds of abuse that estimates from bids and proposals always are.


P
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Dave Davis                             davis@mwunix.mitre.org
MITRE Corporation                     
McLean, VA                             me := disclaimer.all