Rashmi Popli

Cost and effort estimation in agile software development

Projects that are over-budget, delivered late, and fall short of users expectations have been a common problem are a for software development efforts for years. Agile methods, which represent an emerging set of software development methodologies based on the concepts of adaptability and flexibility, are currently touted as a way to alleviate these reoccurring problems and pave the way for the future of development. The estimation in Agile Software Development methods depends on an expert opinion and historical data of project for estimation of cost, size, effort and duration. In absence of the historical data and experts the previous method like analogy and planning poker are not useful. This paper focuses on the research work in Agile Software development and estimation in Agile. It also focuses the problems in current Agile practices thereby proposed a method for accurate cost and effort estimation.

Prioritising user stories in agile environment

In the last few years Agile methodologies appeared as a reaction to traditional software development methodologies. In Agile environment the requirements from the client are always taken in the form of user-stories and prioritization of requirements is done by Moscow method, validate learning and walking skeleton methods. By literature survey it has been observed that these methods are not efficient because they do not consider importance of user-stories by client. In this research work some importance related and effort related factors are considered on the basis of which the prioritization of user-stories is done. Further the feasibility of work has been validated by a case study of Enable Quiz which is a lightweight technical quizzing solution; for companies that hire engineers. The research work will allows the companies to better screen job candidates and assess their internal talent for skills development.

A sprint-point based estimation technique in Scrum

In the last few years Agile methodologies appeared as a reaction to traditional software development methodologies. The Scrum is the widely used method of Agile. Most of the software development organizations are using Scrum these days but these are facing problems related to estimation of cost and effort. It has been observed that the current estimation method in Scrum mostly rely on historical data from past projects and expert opinion but in absence of historical data and experts these methods are not efficient. So there is need of an algorithmic method, which can calculate cost and effort of the software project. In this direction S. Bhalero, Maya Ingel [2] has considered some project-related factors that calculate the cost as well as effort of the project for a general Agile environment. However, several other project as well as people related factors may affect the Scrum environment. In this work an Algorithmic estimation method is being proposed considering various factors thereby estimating the more accurate release date, cost, effort and duration for the project specifically for Scrum. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm has been shown by considering three cases in which different levels of factors are taken and compared.

Estimation in agile environment using resistance factors

The estimation of cost and effort is a critical task in Agile environment because of its dynamic nature. It has been observed that the current Agile methods mostly depends on historical data of project for estimation of cost, size, effort and duration and these methods are not efficient in absence of historical data. So there is need of an algorithmic method, which can calculate cost and effort of the project. In our previous work [2] some project-related factors and people-related factors were considered on the basis of which size as well as duration of the project was calculated. However, several other resistance factors may also affects estimation in the Agile dynamic environment. In this work an Algorithmic estimation method is being proposed that calculates more accurate release date, cost, effort and duration for the project by considering various factors. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed algorithm has been shown by considering two cases in which different levels of factors are taken and compared.

A Sprint Point Based Tool for Agile Estimation

In agile environment, the software is developed by self-organizing and cross-functional teams. Agile promotes ad hoc programming, iterative, and incremental development and a time-boxed delivery approach. Agile is always flexible to changes. Estimation approaches of agile are very different from traditional ones. However, research involving estimation in agile methodologies is considerably less advanced. This paper focuses on the estimation phase of agile software development which probably ranks as the crucial first step. Poor decisions related to estimation activity can cause software failures. In agile environment in order to support estimation, some delay-related factors are proposed that can delay the release date of the project and also a new Sprint-point based estimation tool (SPBE) is designed and developed in excel. The proposed tool is based on the Sprint-point based Estimation Framework and place major emphasis on accurate estimates of effort, cost, and release date by constructing detailed requirements as accurately as possible.