Background: Software Development Effort Estimation is a process that focuses on estimating the required effort to develop a software project with a minimal budget. Estimating effort includes interpretation of required manpower, resources, time and schedule. Project managers are responsible for estimating the required effort. A model that can predict software development effort efficiently comes in hand and acts as a decision support system for the project managers to enhance the precision in estimating effort. Therefore, the context of this study is to increase the efficiency in estimating software development effort. Objective: The main objective of this thesis is to identify an effective ensemble method to build and implement it, in estimating software development effort. Apart from this, parameter tuning is also implemented to improve the performance of the model. Finally, we compare the results of the developed model with the existing models. Method: In this thesis, we have adopted two research methods. Initially, a Literature Review was conducted to gain knowledge on the existing studies, machine learning techniques, datasets, ensemble methods that were previously used in estimating Software Development Effort. Then a controlled Experiment was conducted in order to build an ensemble model and to evaluate the performance of the ensemble model for determining if the developed model has a better performance when compared to the existing models.   Results: After conducting literature review and collecting evidence, we have decided to build and implement stacked generalization ensemble method in this thesis, with the help of individual machine learning techniques like Support vector regressor (SVR), K-Nearest Neighbors regressor (KNN), Decision Tree Regressor (DTR), Linear Regressor (LR), Multi-Layer Perceptron Regressor (MLP) Random Forest Regressor (RFR), Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR), AdaBoost Regressor (ABR), XGBoost Regressor (XGB). Likewise, we have decided to implement Randomized Parameter Optimization and SelectKbest function to implement feature section. Datasets like COCOMO81, MAXWELL, ALBERCHT, DESHARNAIS were used. Results of the experiment show that the developed ensemble model performs at its best, for three out of four datasets. Conclusion: After evaluating and analyzing the results obtained, we can conclude that the developed model works well with the datasets that have continuous, numeric type of values. We can also conclude that the developed ensemble model outperforms other existing models when implemented with COCOMO81, MAXWELL, ALBERCHT datasets.

This paper analyses and develops models for programmer participation and effort estimation in open source software projects. This has not yet been a centre of research, although any results would be of high importance for assessing the efficiency of this model and for various decision-makers. In this paper, a case study is used for hypotheses generation regarding manpower function and effort modeling, then a large data set retrieved from a project repository is used to test these hypotheses. The main results are that Norden-Rayleigh-based approaches need to be complemented to account for the addition of new features during the lifecycle to be usable in this context, and that programmer-participation based effort models show significantly less effort than those based on output metrics like lines-of-code. (author's abstract) / Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operations

In this study, we identified one of the reasons of the low correlation between functional size and development effort which is overlooking the similarity of the functions during the mapping of the functional size and development effort. We developed a methodology (SiRFuS) that is based on the idea of the reuse of the similar functions internally to provide high correlation between functional size and development effort. The method is developed for the identification of the similar functions based on the method of Santillo and Abran. Similarity percentages among the functional processes and Similarity Reflective Functional Sizes are computed to attain adjusted functional sizes. The similarity reflective functional sizes were named as Discrete Similarity Reflective Functional Size and Continuous Similarity Reflective Functional Size based on the characteristics of the adjusted functional sizes. The SiRFuS method consists of three stages: measurement of the software product with COSMIC Functional Size Measurement (FSM) method / identification of the functional similarities bases on the measurement results and calculation of the similarity reflective functional sizes. In order to facilitate the detection of similar functions, calculation of the percentage of the similarities and similarity reflective functional sizes / a software tool is developed based on the SiRFuS method. Two case studies were performed in order to identify the improvement opportunities and evaluate the applicability of the method and the tool.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:32:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO ALEX ONACLI MOREIRA FABRIN.pdf: 469292 bytes, checksum: 2875f4e293515a533b6ee436bceb6d42 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-12-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / One of the most important steps in planning software is budgeting, usually considered a complex task due to the difficulty in precision. To ensure revenue, generally a margin of error is added to the overall price, an act which could harm the organization s competitiveness in the market. Based on this scenario, this work presents a study on the competitiveness among organizations of software development which use the objectoriented approach. In order to identify the fundamentals for formulating competitive strategies for these organizations, the exploratory research method was adopted. The organizations processes and procedures were taken into consideration, so as to form prices for their products and services in this industry, so that methodologies can be formulated to help avoid diversion and error. Therefore, in order to assist the organization in formulating such strategies, the influence of the five competitive forces in the software development industry was also taken into consideration, according to the analysis of industries proposed by Michael Porter. The characteristics of software quality have been presented according to the ISO/IEC 9126-1 Standard and, as a basis for the continuous improvement of quality in the software development industry, the Capability Maturity Model Integration and MPS.BR were used. The Use Case Points technique was considered for measuring the necessary efforts for software development, presenting some factors that influence its appropriateness for different organizations. It is hoped that this work may contribute towards bringing together both Management and Computer Science, by providing a text which may assist management professionals in their activities in software development organizations, and guide the managers of such organizations who do not have a degree in Management. / Uma das etapas importantes no planejamento de um software é o seu orçamento que é considerada uma tarefa de grande complexidade apresentando muita dificuldade de precisão. Para garantir a rentabilidade, geralmente um software é acrescido em seu preço de uma margem de erro que pode prejudicar a competitividade da organização no mercado. Com base neste cenário, este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre o ambiente competitivo das organizações de desenvolvimento de software que utilizam a abordagem de orientação a objetos. Com o objetivo de identificar os fundamentos para a formulação de estratégias competitivas para estas organizações, adotou-se como metodologia a pesquisa exploratória. Considerou-se que, para a formação dos preços dos produtos e serviços dessa indústria, é preciso conhecer suas atividades, seus processos e seus procedimentos, para formular metodologias que permitam evitar desvios e erros. Assim, para orientar as formulações de estratégias das organizações, considerou-se a influência das cinco forças competitivas na indústria de desenvolvimento de software, conforme a técnica de análise de indústrias proposta de Michael Porter. As características de qualidade de software foram apresentadas de acordo com a Norma ISO/IEC 9126-1 e, como base para o aperfeiçoamento contínuo da qualidade na indústria de desenvolvimento de software, utilizou-se o Capability Maturity Model Integration e o MPS.BR. Para a mensuração dos esforços necessários para o desenvolvimento de software, considerou-se a técnica de pontos de caso de uso, apresentando-se alguns fatores que influenciam sua adequação para as diferentes organizações. Espera-se que este trabalho possa contribuir para a aproximação das áreas da Administração e da Computação, fornecendo um texto que possa auxiliar os profissionais da administração nas suas atividades em organizações de desenvolvimento de software, e orientar os gestores de organizações de desenvolvimento de software que não possuem formação na área de Administração.