ESTIMATING SOFTWARE EFFORT COMPLETION

THE PROPOSED PROJECT "ESTIMATING SOFTWARE EFFORT COMPLETION"INTENDS TO DEVELOP AND EXTEND A TECHNOLOGY TO AVOID COSTLY SOFTWARE PROJECT BUDGET OVERRUNS. THE TECHNOLOGY, EFFORT COMPLETION ESTIMATING, IS BASED ON A MATHEMATICAL MODELING TECHNIQUE CALLED ELEMENT ASSOCIATION MATRICES. THE FULLY DEVELOPED TECHNOLOGY WOULD ALLOW SOFTWARE PROJECT BUDGETS TOBE BETTER ESTIMATED IN ADVANCE AND EFFECTIVELY MANAGED WHILE IN-PROCESS. IT WOULD ALSO ALLOW SELECTING WHICH CHANGES CAN BE MADE TO SOFTWARE WITHOUT RISKING SYSTEM INSTABILITY. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT ARE TO IDENTIFY CRITICAL CASES FOR THE MATHEMATICAL TECHNIQUE, SEARCH FOR QUANTITATIVE METHODS TO REPLACE SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENTS, IDENTIFY THE THEORETICAL OR EMPIRICAL STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MODELING TECHNIQUE, AND TESTPREDICTED RESULTS WITH EXPECTATIONS. IF SUCCESSFUL, A COMMERCIALIZED VERSION COULD BE WIDELY APPLIED IN GOVERNMENT, MILITARY, COMMERCIAL, AND VENDOR SOFTWARE PROJECTS TO SAVE SIGNIFICANT TIME AND MONEY. THE TECHNOLOGYIS INNOVATIVE BECAUSE IT CAN BE USED ON BOTH NEW SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTAINING EXISTING SOFTWARE. THE TECHNOLOGY DIFFERS FROM OTHER TECHNIQUES BECAUSE IT CONSIDERS WHOLE SOFTWARE SYSTEMS, OR PORTIONS, AS AN INTERRELATED COLLECTION OF INTEGRATED COMPONENTS. MOST EXISTING TECHNIQUES LOOK AT 'SURROGATE' INDICATORS TO EXTRAPOLATE PROJECT BEHAVIOR RATHER THAN CONSIDERING COMPONENTS AS PART OF AN INTEGRATED WHOLE.