Software size estimation in incremental Software Development based on improved Pairwise Comparison matrices

Abstract

Software sizing is a crucial activity among the task of software management. Work planning and subsequent estimation of effort and cost required is based on the estimate of the software size required. Software developers are realizing the need to speed up the development process to respond to customers' needs .This has resulted in adoption of rapid development methods and adoption of agile methodologies. Incremental method of software development has been adopted as one of the methods to speed up software development. Unfortunately there is little work that has been done to develop a clear framework to estimate software size and cost in incremental software development environment. This research work proposes the use of Pairwise Comparison matrices framework to estimate size and cost in incremental software development and evaluate the pairwise comparison framework against Putman's size estimation model to determine if it produces more accurate results in terms of estimation of size relative to actual size.