Accession Number:

AD0712052

Title:

A PRELIMINARY INQUIRY INTO THE SOFTWARE ESTIMATION PROCESS,

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

RAND CORP SANTA MONICA CALIF

Personal Author(s):

• Farquhar,J. A.

Report Date:

1970-08-01

Pagination or Media Count:

57.0

Abstract:

The report reviews the literature of software estimation and reports a small experiment comparing Delphi with face-to-face group judgment to predict the time necessary to program an information system--in this case, the Air Forces PDSO Personnel Data System--Officers. Planning software production is necessary but almost impossible at present. Cost to completion depends on many factors, some unknown at the time and all hard to quantify the difficulty of the task, the programmers ability and familiarity with the procedures involved, the degree of definition provided him, and about 80 other factors. The experiments undertaken failed to establish the utility of either estimation method. Primary recommendations for further research are 1 more effective data collection, 2 analysis of characteristics of good estimators, and 3 formal inquiry into the techniques used by estimators. Author

Descriptors:

• (*COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
• TIME STUDIES)
• MATHEMATICAL PREDICTION
• COST EFFECTIVENESS
• EFFICIENCY
• DATA PROCESSING
• AIR FORCE

Subject Categories:

• Computer Programming and Software

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE