Effective Software Project Estimation: An Excel Based Approach

The most essential factor for completion of project is the accurate Software Project Estimation in term of Cost, Effort, Schedule and Resources. As the size and complexity of project increases, it becomes a challenge for project manager to accurately predict the cost and effort with achievable scheduling. Each and every stakeholder of concern program wants to find out accurate estimation. Software industry is changing in lightning speed, so it is extremely difficult to develop parametric models that yield high accuracy for software development in all domains. This paper provides an overall overview on available cost estimation technique along with excel based cost estimation method which is more inclined towards expert judgment. Authors have analyzed different cost estimation techniques and came to a conclusion that no available techniques singly provide correct measurement for cost & schedule and is best for all situations. Authors have done a comparative study of the results of several approaches which in terms provide an overall accurate estimate. This paper reviews the different estimation techniques and illustrates an Excel based cost estimation model.