Effort Estimation in Agile Software Development: A Systematic Mapping Study

Abstract

Context: Estimating effort has always been considered an important element at the start of each software development project. The challenge of estimating the effort of software development lies in its precision. With the emergence of agile methodologies, methods for effort estimation (EE) had to adapt to this new development path. In this article, we are conducting a systematic mapping study on effort estimation in the context of agile software development. Objective: we want to identify the estimation approaches and techniques used in the context of agile development to better understand the specifics and trends relating to this mode of development. Method: we conducted a systematic mapping study by adopting the guideline explained in[1] [2]. A systematic review of the literature [3] has already been carried out for publications between 2001 and 2013. This work is an extension of this previous study. We queried 5 electronic databases. Conclusion: We retrieved 11350 paper from five electronic databases. A total of 108 papers is selected after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Based on the results, there is a general increase over the years of studies concerning effort estimation in agile software development.