• DOI:10.1109/ISESE.2003.1237981
• Corpus ID: 15471986

A review of software surveys on software effort estimation

@article{Molkkenstvold2003ARO,
  title={A review of software surveys on software effort estimation},
  author={Kjetil Mol{\o}kken-{\O}stvold and Magne J{\o}rgensen},
  journal={2003 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, 2003. ISESE 2003. Proceedings.},
  year={2003},
  pages={223-230}
}

• Kjetil Moløkken-Østvold, M. Jørgensen
• Published 20 October 2003
• Economics
• 2003 International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, 2003. ISESE 2003. Proceedings.

This paper summarizes estimation knowledge through a review of surveys on software effort estimation. Main findings were that: (1) most projects (60-80%) encounter effort and/or schedule overruns. The overruns, however, seem to be lower than the overruns reported by some consultancy companies. For example, Standish Group's "Chaos Report" describes an average cost overrun of 89%, which is much higher than the average overruns found in other surveys, i.e. 3040%. (2) The estimation methods in most frequent use of expert judgment is that there is no evidence that formal estimation models lead to more accurate estimates. (3) There is a lack of surveys including extensive analyses of the reasons for effort and schedule overruns.