期刊名称：Journal of Software Engineering and Applications
印刷版ISSN：1945-3116
电子版ISSN：1945-3124
出版年度：2014
卷号：07
期号：08
页码：655-669
DOI：10.4236/jsea.2014.78060
语种：English
出版社：Scientific Research Publishing
摘要：Traditional project effort estimation utilizes development models that span the entire project life cycle and thus culminates estimation errors. This exploratory research is the first attempt to break each project activity down to smaller work elements. There are eight work elements, each of which is being defined and symbolized with visually distinct shape. The purpose is to standardize the operations associated with the development process in the form of a visual symbolic flow map. Hence, developers can streamline their work systematically. Project effort estimation can be determined based on these standard work elements that not only help identify essential cost drivers for estimation, but also reduce latency cost to enhance estimation efficiency. Benefits of the proposed work element scheme are project visibility, better control for immediate pay-off and, in long term management, standardization for software process automation.
关键词：Project Effort Estimation; Work Element; Symbolic Flow Map; Latency Cost; Software Process Automation
