B. W. Boehm software engineering economics
Antony Bryant, John Kirkham · ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes · 1983
The current tendency for software costs to exceed hardware costs is the effec t of both an absolute increase in the former and decrease in the latter .Software development is now the major cost factor for any project concerned wit h the introduction or enhancement of electronic data-processing (EDP) equipment : it is also the most difficult for which to produce acceptably accurate estimate s -both in terms of monetary cost and development schedule .In response to th e growing dissatisfaction caused by the all-too-frequent tendency for fina l software development costs and schedules grossly to exceed initial estimates , attempts have been made to perfect estimating methods and models which can clai m at least a reasonable degree of accuracy, providing a realistic basis fo r budget planning and labour allocation .