What Must be Verified in an Estimation Process: An Overview
Alain Abran · 2015
This chapter provides an overview of what must be verified at each phase of a software estimation process, including the direct inputs used to build an estimation process, the use of the productivity model itself, the adjustment phase, the budgeting phase and the re-estimation process. Software engineers and managers use an estimation process to make commitments that are financially significant for their organization and professionally important for their own career. The chapter verifies the direct inputs to the estimation process. The first verification step consists of identifying the inputs to the estimation process and documenting the quality of those inputs when estimating a specific project for a specific context. The productivity model is not verified each time an estimate is made for a project. Typically, it is verified only once, when the productivity model is first built, or when an estimation tool is selected from external sources.