Nassif, A.B., Capretz, L.F., Ho, D. Software Estimation in the Early Stages of the Software Life Cycle, International Conference on Emerging Trends in Computer Science, Communication and Information Technology, Maharashtra, India, January 2010.

   [Abstract] Software estimation is imperative in software engineering. Many projects fail because of inaccurate size or effort estimation.  The most critical and crucial part of software estimation is when estimation is required in the early stages of the software life cycle where the problem to be solved has not yet been completely revealed.  Early software size estimation helps projects to be managed efficiently and helps managers estimate the effort, schedule and cost of the project.  This in turn, allows the managers to bid effectively on software projects.  This paper demonstrates the function points model and presents some methods used to measure the size of software in the early stages.  A comparison between these methods highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each method.   After displaying software size estimation methods, some methods will be presented to demonstrate how the effort of software can be estimated.  Some techniques based on Artificial Intelligence are presented to illustrate how the accuracy of estimation can be improved.