[ABSTRACT] Estimation of Software Projects: Engineering Practices or Placeboes?

Alain Abran

For four decades now, and a number of estimation tools and techniques have been proposed to address the challenge of software estimation, including in Agile contexts.

But how good are these solutions and what knowledge is available to assess the estimation tools available? What do managers typically know about the quality of their estimation process, or about the performance of estimation tools available in the marketplace?

This talk will present some of the best engineering practices in software project estimation, including: the right concepts to measure software project productivity – i.e. functional size measurement; how to use productivity findings to develop estimation models; how to verify the quality of the various components of an estimation process.