Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets

Hennie Huijgens; Arie van Deursen; Leandro L. Minku; Chris Lokan

doi:10.1145/3084226.3084249

Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets

Hennie Huijgens, Arie van Deursen, Leandro L. Minku, Chris Lokan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

564 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Context: The research literature on software development projects usually assumes that effort is a good proxy for cost. Practice, however, suggests that there are circumstances in which costs and effort should be distinguished. Objectives: We determine similar-ities and differences between size, effort, cost, duration, and num-ber of defects of software projects. Method: We compare two es-tablished repositories (ISBSG and EBSPM) comprising almost 700 projects from industry. Results: We demonstrate a (log)-linear relation between cost on the one hand, and size, duration and number of defects on the other. This justifies conducting linear regression for cost. We establish that ISBSG is substantially differ-ent from EBSPM, in terms of cost (cheaper) and duration (faster), and the relation between cost and effort. We show that while in ISBSG effort is the most important cost factor, this is not the case in other repositories, such as EBSPM in which size is the dominant factor. Conclusion: Practitioners and researchers alike should be cautious when drawing conclusions from a single repository.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017
Editors	Emilia Mendes, Steve Counsell, Kai Petersen
Place of Publication	New York, NY
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	51-60
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-4804-1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3084226.3084249
Publication status	Published - Jun 2017
Event	EASE 2017: 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering - BTH, Karlskrona, Sweden Duration: 15 Jun 2017 → 16 Jul 2017 Conference number: 21 http://ease2017.bth.se/

Conference

Conference	EASE 2017
Country/Territory	Sweden
City	Karlskrona
Period	15/06/17 → 16/07/17
Internet address	http://ease2017.bth.se/

Keywords

Software Economics
Evidence-Based Software Portfolio Management
EBSPM
Benchmarking
ISBSG
Cost Prediction

Access to Document

10.1145/3084226.3084249

TUD-SERG-2017-012Accepted author manuscript, 999 KB

http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3084226.3084249

Evidence-Based Software Portfolio Management (EBSPM) Research Repository
Huijgens, H. K. M. (Creator), TU Delft - 4TU.ResearchData, 20 Jul 2017
DOI: 10.4121/UUID:42FD1BE1-325F-47A4-BA39-31AF35CA7F75
Dataset/Software: Dataset

Cite this

Huijgens, H., van Deursen, A., Minku, L. L., & Lokan, C. (2017). Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets. In E. Mendes, S. Counsell, & K. Petersen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017 (pp. 51-60). Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3084226.3084249

Huijgens, Hennie ; van Deursen, Arie ; Minku, Leandro L. et al. / Effort and Cost in Software Engineering : A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017. editor / Emilia Mendes ; Steve Counsell ; Kai Petersen. New York, NY : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2017. pp. 51-60

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abstract = "Context: The research literature on software development projects usually assumes that effort is a good proxy for cost. Practice, however, suggests that there are circumstances in which costs and effort should be distinguished. Objectives: We determine similar-ities and differences between size, effort, cost, duration, and num-ber of defects of software projects. Method: We compare two es-tablished repositories (ISBSG and EBSPM) comprising almost 700 projects from industry. Results: We demonstrate a (log)-linear relation between cost on the one hand, and size, duration and number of defects on the other. This justifies conducting linear regression for cost. We establish that ISBSG is substantially differ-ent from EBSPM, in terms of cost (cheaper) and duration (faster), and the relation between cost and effort. We show that while in ISBSG effort is the most important cost factor, this is not the case in other repositories, such as EBSPM in which size is the dominant factor. Conclusion: Practitioners and researchers alike should be cautious when drawing conclusions from a single repository.",

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Huijgens, H, van Deursen, A, Minku, LL & Lokan, C 2017, Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets. in E Mendes, S Counsell & K Petersen (eds), Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, NY, pp. 51-60, EASE 2017, Karlskrona, Sweden, 15/06/17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3084226.3084249

Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets. / Huijgens, Hennie; van Deursen, Arie; Minku, Leandro L. et al.
Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017. ed. / Emilia Mendes; Steve Counsell; Kai Petersen. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2017. p. 51-60.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Effort and Cost in Software Engineering

T2 - EASE 2017

AU - Huijgens, Hennie

AU - van Deursen, Arie

AU - Minku, Leandro L.

AU - Lokan, Chris

N1 - Conference code: 21

PY - 2017/6

Y1 - 2017/6

N2 - Context: The research literature on software development projects usually assumes that effort is a good proxy for cost. Practice, however, suggests that there are circumstances in which costs and effort should be distinguished. Objectives: We determine similar-ities and differences between size, effort, cost, duration, and num-ber of defects of software projects. Method: We compare two es-tablished repositories (ISBSG and EBSPM) comprising almost 700 projects from industry. Results: We demonstrate a (log)-linear relation between cost on the one hand, and size, duration and number of defects on the other. This justifies conducting linear regression for cost. We establish that ISBSG is substantially differ-ent from EBSPM, in terms of cost (cheaper) and duration (faster), and the relation between cost and effort. We show that while in ISBSG effort is the most important cost factor, this is not the case in other repositories, such as EBSPM in which size is the dominant factor. Conclusion: Practitioners and researchers alike should be cautious when drawing conclusions from a single repository.

AB - Context: The research literature on software development projects usually assumes that effort is a good proxy for cost. Practice, however, suggests that there are circumstances in which costs and effort should be distinguished. Objectives: We determine similar-ities and differences between size, effort, cost, duration, and num-ber of defects of software projects. Method: We compare two es-tablished repositories (ISBSG and EBSPM) comprising almost 700 projects from industry. Results: We demonstrate a (log)-linear relation between cost on the one hand, and size, duration and number of defects on the other. This justifies conducting linear regression for cost. We establish that ISBSG is substantially differ-ent from EBSPM, in terms of cost (cheaper) and duration (faster), and the relation between cost and effort. We show that while in ISBSG effort is the most important cost factor, this is not the case in other repositories, such as EBSPM in which size is the dominant factor. Conclusion: Practitioners and researchers alike should be cautious when drawing conclusions from a single repository.

KW - Software Economics

KW - Evidence-Based Software Portfolio Management

KW - EBSPM

KW - Benchmarking

KW - ISBSG

KW - Cost Prediction

U2 - 10.1145/3084226.3084249

DO - 10.1145/3084226.3084249

M3 - Conference contribution

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BT - Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017

A2 - Mendes, Emilia

A2 - Counsell, Steve

A2 - Petersen, Kai

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

CY - New York, NY

Y2 - 15 June 2017 through 16 July 2017

ER -

Huijgens H, van Deursen A, Minku LL, Lokan C. Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets. In Mendes E, Counsell S, Petersen K, editors, Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, EASE 2017. New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). 2017. p. 51-60 doi: 10.1145/3084226.3084249

Effort and Cost in Software Engineering: A Comparison of Two Industrial Data Sets

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Evidence-Based Software Portfolio Management (EBSPM) Research Repository

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