Software Project Duration Estimation Based on COSMIC Method Applied to Data Flow Diagram

[摘要] Business process models are created before the detailed software design, during requirements phase of softwaredevelopment. Even disciplined agile methodology includes business process modeling, before development iterations start.Their use in an estimation of software development duration could be beneficial, because they provide sufficient elements formapping with software design and development planning. In this paper we propose the method for software project durationestimation based on Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC) method, applied to data flowdiagram. This method is based on data flow diagram analysis and extraction of primitive business procceses,data flows anddata stores. The paper contributes with the approach to enhance COSMIC method with calculation of software developmentprocess duration based on both data movement-related and data-manipulation-related software functional sub-processes.Data movement-related functional sub-processes are derived from Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD) operations assignedto data flows. Calculation of data manipulation-related functional sub-processes duration is derived from number of businessprocesses. The proposed metric enables calculating effort (expressed in Cosmic Functional Points units) and duration(presented with Man/Hours units). An example of the approach application and an empirical study demonstrates theapplicability of the approach.

[学科分类] 计算机科学（综合）

[关键词] Business process model;CRUD operations;software effort estimation;functional process;data movement;datamanipulation