© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.1 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition IS estimating issues Unique projects with much innovation “Estimates” often produced early – before specification agreed No professional estimators Few published metrics available

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.2 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition Analogy method Find a similar project: –Type of business –Size of applications –Scope of systems –Technical methods and standards Must adjust for: –Organisational culture –Users’ level of computer literacy –Degree of management support for project

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.3 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition Analysis and programming approaches Explicitly estimate for one stage: –Analysis method – analysis stage –Programming method – code/unit test stage Extrapolate whole project outcome from stage estimate Must adjust for: –Project size –Familiarity with business and technical environment –Technical complexity

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.4 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition Direct estimate (from project breakdown) Break down project (either using WBS or PBS approach) Estimate for each task / product Sum products to get stages Sum stages to get project Takes time… …and requires expert estimators

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.5 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition Delphi technique Several estimators given specification of work and asked for estimates Summarised anonymously and results circulated to estimators Can revise estimates in the light of others’ ideas Method reduces personal disagreements and ego-based issues

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.6 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition CoCoMo Formulae based on thousands of delivered source instructions (KDSI) Basic, intermediate and detailed versions CoCoMo II now developed for wider range of development approaches Useful elapsed time formula: 2.5 x (estimated effort in man-months) 0.33

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.7 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition Function point analysis Based on analysis of inputs, outputs and files accessed in system Starts with unadjusted function points Then adjusts for: –technical complexity –performance-influencing factors –risks

© Pearson Education Limited 2004 OHT 9.8 Cadle and Yeates: Project Management for Information Systems, 4th edition Supporting activities Can considerably inflate base estimates Includes: –Proportional activities: Team leading/supervision Documentation Quality control Customer reviews –Elapsed-time activities: Project management Systems management Configuration management Project office work