A novel method to early agile effort estimation through functional initiatives

IF 4.1 2区计算机科学 Q1 COMPUTER SCIENCE, SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Journal of Systems and Software Pub Date : 2024-11-28 DOI:10.1016/j.jss.2024.112302

Wilson Rosa, Sara Jardine

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Abstract

Context

Decision makers struggle to develop rough order of magnitude cost estimates early in an agile software project's lifecycle, when lack of detailed functional user requirements limits Functional Size Measurement.

Objective

This study introduces a new method based on counting initiatives to measure the functional size (Functional Initiative Count (FIC) and Functional Initiative Points (FIP) of agile software projects during their early phases and examines its effectiveness as a predictor of agile software development effort. FIC and FIP are derived from an agile project's high-level initiatives converted into similar size units based on their active verbs. Initiatives, also referred to as capabilities in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DoD), identifies the means to accomplish a mission, function, or objective. Initiatives are typically documented early in a project's product vision document, product roadmap document, or concept of operations (in the DHS and DoD).

Method

The analysis used historical actual data from 21 agile projects implemented between 2014 and 2022 in the DHS and DoD.

Result

FIC revealed to be a reliable predictor of total software development effort, while FIP revealed to be an even better predictor of total software development effort.

Conclusion

Using FIP is a viable solution to use as a functional size measure for early phase agile software development effort estimation.

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通过功能倡议进行早期敏捷努力估算的新方法

在敏捷软件项目生命周期的早期，当缺乏详细的功能性用户需求限制了功能规模度量时，决策者努力开发粗略的数量级成本估算。目的介绍了一种基于计划计数的方法来衡量敏捷软件项目早期阶段的功能大小(功能计划计数（FIC）和功能计划点数（FIP），并检验了其作为敏捷软件开发工作预测指标的有效性。FIC和FIP是从敏捷项目的高层活动中派生出来的，根据它们的活动动词转换成类似大小的单元。主动性，也被称为国土安全部（DHS）和国防部（DoD）的能力，确定完成任务、功能或目标的手段。计划通常在项目的产品远景文档、产品路线图文档或操作概念（在国土安全部和国防部）的早期进行记录。方法采用2014年至2022年在国土安全部和国防部实施的21个敏捷项目的历史实际数据进行分析。结果fic显示为软件开发总工作量的可靠预测器，而FIP显示为软件开发总工作量的更好预测器。使用FIP作为早期敏捷软件开发工作量估算的功能大小度量是一种可行的解决方案。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Systems and Software 工程技术-计算机：理论方法

CiteScore

8.60

自引率

5.70%

发文量

193

审稿时长

16 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Systems and Software publishes papers covering all aspects of software engineering and related hardware-software-systems issues. All articles should include a validation of the idea presented, e.g. through case studies, experiments, or systematic comparisons with other approaches already in practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: •Methods and tools for, and empirical studies on, software requirements, design, architecture, verification and validation, maintenance and evolution •Agile, model-driven, service-oriented, open source and global software development •Approaches for mobile, multiprocessing, real-time, distributed, cloud-based, dependable and virtualized systems •Human factors and management concerns of software development •Data management and big data issues of software systems •Metrics and evaluation, data mining of software development resources •Business and economic aspects of software development processes The journal welcomes state-of-the-art surveys and reports of practical experience for all of these topics.