Experiences with criticality predictions in software development
Christof Ebert · ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes · 1997
Cost-effective software project management has the serious riced to focus resources on those areas with highest criticality.The paper focuses on two arcas important for practical application of criticality-based predictions in real projects, namely the selection of a classification technique and the use of the results in directing management decisions.The first part is comprehensively comparing and evalualing five common classification techniques (Pareto classification, classification trees, factor-based discriminant analysis, fuzzy classification, neural networks) for identifying critical components.Results from a current large-scale switching project are included to show practical benefits.Knowing which technique should be applied the second area gains even more attention: What are the impacts for practical projecl management within given resource and time constraints?Several selection crilcria based on the results of a combined criticality and history analysis are provided logether with potential decisions.