Title
On the value of project productivity for early effort estimation
Abstract
In general, estimating software effort using a Use Case Point (UCP) size requires the use of productivity as a second prediction factor. However, there are three drawbacks to this approach: (1) there is no clear procedure for predicting productivity in the early stages, (2) the use of fixed or limited productivity ratios does not allow research to reflect the realities of the software industry, and (3) productivity from historical data is often challenging. The new UCP datasets now available allow us to perform further empirical investigations of the productivity variable in order to estimate the UCP effort. Accordingly, four different prediction models based on productivity were used. The results showed that learning productivity from historical data is more efficient than using classical approaches that rely on default or limited productivity values. In addition, predicting productivity from historical environmental factors is not often accurate. From here we conclude that productivity is an effective factor for estimating the software effort based on the UCP in the presence and absence of previous historical data. Moreover, productivity measurement should be flexible and adjustable when historical data is available.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.1016/j.scico.2022.102819
Science of Computer Programming
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Use Case Points,Software productivity,Software effort estimation,Software size measures,Regression to mean
Journal
219
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
0167-6423
1
0.37
References 
Authors
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mohammad Azzeh121.08
Ali Bou Nassif210.37
Yousef Elsheikh310.37
Lefteris Angelis4129682.51