Course Overview | Course Objectives | Course Contents | Workshop Benefits
Who Should Attend | Delivery Method | Trainers Profile
Software Estimation Workshop (18 PDUs)
July 11 - 12, 2008 @ Bangalore, INDIA
"Software development costs are significant. And yet for 25 years now, 200 to 300 per cent cost over-runs and up to 100 percent time slippages have been common, frequent, almost universal. It would seem that software development had no pattern, no process, no methodology, or no characteristic behaviour."
Good software estimation is not simply about tools, techniques and processes. Accurate software cost estimation is first and foremost about the right attitude -- not just from the software developers, but also from senior management. When we take a realistic stand on what can be done, what has been done, what is being put before us and risks in the project, we can then successfully plan our business to make it more predictable and manageable.
Today, the trend in software development is toward simplification, agility, and lean methods - often accomplished through iterative spiral approaches, with increasingly more functional systems being released after each iteration. In the past few years software cost estimation methods have changed alongside these development processes. Learning these approaches can help your organization estimate software costs more accurately.
Our intensive 2-day workshop on Software Estimation covers all aspects of software cost estimation - from theory to application. This combines expert knowledge, extensive industry research and practical hands-on experience on widely practiced methods in Software Estimation and emerging trends in Software Estimation techniques.
The objective of this workshop is to enable participants to
• Understand the principles of good estimation
• Be aware of the tools available in the market for estimation
• Apply appropriate cost estimation techniques, methods and approaches to projects.
• Establish a cost baseline for tracking projects
• Set expectations regarding the project schedule and costs
• Develop metrics for size estimation in the organization
Day 1 : Overview of Software Estimation
- Introduction
- Purpose of Software Estimation
- Software estimation challenges
- The organizational mindset
- Presenting the estimates
- Accuracy of estimation
- Organization environment factors
- Evolution of Software Estimation
- Estimation approaches
- Popular Software Estimation Techniques
- Model-based techniques
- Functionality-based techniques
- Expert-based techniques
- Software Estimation for Maintenance projects
- Software Estimation for Packaged Software based projects
- Future trends in Software Estimation
- Steps in Software Estimation
- Assessing project environment characteristics
- Assessing project size
- Assessing project effort, duration and cost based on project size
- Setting up a feedback system for validating estimates during and after project execution
Day 2 : Practical session on a few popular estimation techniques
Function Point Analysis
- Overview of Function Point Analysis
- Introduction to Function Points
- Elements of Function Point Estimation
- Files - Internal Logical Files, External Interface Files
- Transactions - External Inputs, External Outputs, External Inquiries
- Estimation steps
- Identifying Files and Transactions
- Assessing complexity of Files and Transactions
- Adjusting Function Points based on system complexity
- Using industry averages and adjustment factors
- Applying Function Points to determine
- Overall project effort based on platform / technology used
- Approximate schedule duration
- Phase-wise distribution of effort
- Efforts for test case specification
- Efforts for defect fixing and rework
- Staffing requirements
- Contingency for requirements change through the project
- Variations of Function Points approach
- Counting Function Points for the Case Study
Use Case Points
- Overview of Use Case modeling technique
- Introduction to Use Case Methodology
- Elements of Use Case Points Estimation
- Actors
- Use Cases
- Estimation Steps
- Assigning weights to Actors
- Assigning weights to Use Cases
- Calculating unadjusted Use Case Points
- Adjusting for technical complexity
- Adjusting for environmental complexity
- Adjusted Use Case Points
- Applying Use Case Points to determine
- Overall project effort
- Approximate schedule duration
- Staffing requirements
- Counting Use Case Points for the Case Study
COCOMO-II Method
- Overview of COCOMO and COCOMO-II approaches
- Introduction to COCOMO
- Need for COCOMO-II
- COCOMO-II Uses
- COCOMO-II Model Objectives
- Development and evolution strategies
- Software Economies and Dis-economies of Scale
- Estimation Steps
- Determining Size
- Adjusting for Reuse
- Adjusting for re-engineering or conversion
- Applications maintenance
- Adjusting nominal effort
- Early Design model
- Post-Architecture model
- Development schedule estimation
- Applying COCOMO-II model to the Case Study
Wideband Delphi Method
- Overview of Wide-band Delphi approach
- Introduction to Work Breakdown approach
- Elements of Wideband Delphi method
- The Delphi process
- Choosing the team
- Kickoff meeting
- Individual preparation
- Estimation session
- Assemble tasks
- Review results
- Determining Work Breakdown for the Case Study using Wideband Delphi
Benefits/Takeaways / Workshop Motivation
• Customers of software services can get an understanding of sizing of a software application and assessing project costs.
• Technology directors will benefit from a broad understanding of estimation practices and cultivating an environment that encourages successful software cost estimation.
• Senior executives and managers will benefit by gaining an understanding of how their software developers generate estimates, what can reasonably be expected, what the estimates really mean, and how to plan their business strategies based on reasonable expectations from their developers.
• Software developers will benefit from making more accurate estimates by applying the right technique of estimation based on the context of estimation, amount of inputs available and the risks and assumptions in the project.
• Applying formal and appropriate estimation techniques will
- Improve accuracy of estimates
- Help in handling project risks and assumptions
- Improve team buy-in on project schedules
- Improve project predictability & visibility
- Help to manage client expectations
- Clients and suppliers who have business accountabilities for the preparation and monitoring of Software Development costs and delivery dates.
- Pre Sales & Marketing
- Program Managers
- Project Managers
- Requirements Management personnel
- Project Delivery personnel
- SEPG(SM) Members
- Software QA Professionals
Delivery Method - Delivery Method –The course is a mix of case driven, instructor-led, and self-paced learning, designed to enable participants learn, experiment and implement the concepts involving techniques for software size estimation. To enable a thorough hands-on of the concepts taught in the class room, the course is structured around a formal case study.
Shobha Ramesh has a career spanning 20 years in the IT industry in organizations such as Satyam, SLK Software, Kirloskar Computer Services Ltd and BFL Software Ltd.
She has over 12 years of experience as a Project / Program Manager and has handled projects of sizes ranging from 1 – 100 person-years on UNIX, J2EE, Microsoft, TIBCO and Livelink platforms in various types of client engagement models like offshore model, onsite-offshore model, multi-site / multi-vendor model, staff augmentation model etc.
She has managed large ODCs containing development, maintenance and production-support activities.
As part of her project management activities, she has specialized in product development and in Release & Configuration Management for large projects with multiple teams.
She has managed projects for a wide variety of customers including domestic, US, Japanese, Chinese and Australian customers in the Retail, Automotive, Banking, Manufacturing and Business Performance Measurement domains.
Shobha’s analysis and design skills include OOAD, SSAD, Database Modeling and UML.
Shobha has completed her M.Sc in Mathematics in 1985 from IIT Chennai.
Some of the organizations where Shobha has trained:
- HCL Shipara Technologies
- IBM
- Intellinet
- Microsoft
- Misys
- Satyam Computers