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Basis of Estimating Software Development

Herding Cats

The estimating of software development is both straightforward and complex. When it is suggested that estimating is hard, of no value, and unnecessary, always ask what principle is used to support that claim? Software Sizing and Estimating: Mk II FPA , Charles Symons, John Wiley & Sons, 1991.

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Software Estimating Resources

Herding Cats

This blog page is dedicated to the resources used to estimate software-intensive systems using traditional and agile development methods. Cost Modeling Agile Software Development,” Maarit Laanti and Petri Kettunen, International Transactions on Systems and Applications, Volume 1 Number 2, pp.

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Estimating is a Learned Skill

Herding Cats

Estimating is a learned skill, used for any purpose from every-day life to management of projects. When I left for the airport this morning to catch my flight to a customer site I estimated, given the conditions, how much time I need to get to my favorite parking spot at DIA. So when you hear we can't estimate you'll know better.

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Thinking By Sprinting: What Cognitive Science Tells Us About Why Scrum Works

Scrum.org

A while ago, I received an interesting scientific article from Gunther Verheyen titled “Getting Things Done: The Science Behind Stress-Free Productivity” (Heylighen & Vidal, 2007). Software development is (generally speaking) very complex. This will affect all estimates and predictions. Limitations of attention.

2002 201
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Microeconomics and Risk Management in Decision Making for Software Development

Herding Cats

Making changes late in the development cycle has significant impacts on the verification and validation of the system no matter the software development method. . A recent survey of 600 firms indicated that 35% of them had at least one "runaway' software project. Dissertation, University of Maryland, 2007.

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Reading List for the Cone of Uncertainty

Herding Cats

The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project’s outcome; it is to determine whether a project’s targets are realistic enough to allow the project to be controlled to meet them ? As more details get developed, the Cone converges to the actual value. Steve McConnell.

2012 48
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Resources for Cone of Uncertainty

Herding Cats

Seems there is still some confusion (intentional or accidental) about the Cone of Uncertainty and its purpose and its use in software development. Some feel that the cone does not provide any value for the work they do and does not match the reducing uncertainty in their estimates. This letter states.

2007 34