Progress, obstacles, and opportunities in software engineering economics
Chris F. Kemerer · Communications of the ACM · 1998
This article focuses on the progress, obstacles, and opportunities in software engineering economics. There are a number of research topics related to information system and economics including effective use of information technology, and efficient provision of IT resources. Software engineering economics (SEE) spans both these topics. While the economics of computer hardware have been relatively ignored in the management research literature, software has been an entirely different matter. Software costs continue to be significant, and industry's understanding of how to reduce them has improved only very slowly in contrast to hardware. The SEE research commonly has a significant technological component to it, much of the research is focused on evaluating promising new technologies or approaches to software development. Practitioners are most concerned about understanding what aspects of software engineering innovations have worked best and whether they are applicable to their particular situation.