Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art

Chapter 8. Calibration and Historical Data

Applicability of Techniques in This Chapter

	Calibration with Industry-Average Data	Calibration with Organizational Data	Calibration with Project-Specific Data
What’s estimated	Size, Effort, Schedule, Features	Size, Effort, Schedule, Features	Size, Effort, Schedule, Features
Size of project	S M L	S M L	S M L
Development stage	Early–Middle	Early–Middle	Middle–Late
Iterative or sequential	Both	Both	Both
Accuracy possible	Low–Medium	Medium–High	High

Calibration is used to convert counts to estimates—lines of code to effort, user stories to calendar time, requirements to number of test cases, and so on. Estimates always involve some sort of calibration, whether explicit or implicit. Calibration using various kinds of data ...