Chapter 8Estimating Software Size: The Basics

There are many possible definitions of product size, each suited to a particular purpose. (In Section 4.2, Table 4.1 identified possible-sized items and their units of measure.) Section 4.2 also discussed how to use size and productivity to compute the effort needed to produce code, data, and documents, and to deliver services such as training. When a project is completed, it is possible (but not necessarily easy) to measure the amount of product delivered and the resources consumed and so compute the (historical) productivity. To estimate software development effort, the challenge is estimating the amount (size) of software that must be produced.

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