Extending use-case point-based software effort estimation for Open Source freelance software development

Abstract

Accurately predicting the software development effort is very crucial when delivering the software systems on time, within the budget and with the required functionality. Overestimation of the software development effort can lead to losing the projects whereas underestimation can cause budget and schedule overruns. The development effort of a software project depends on various factors and these effort factors associated with the freelance software development are different from those of traditional software development. Software development companies employ various proprietary tools in their projects for their planning, development, testing, etc. However, freelance software developers functioning under tight budgetary constraints are not in a position to afford them. As a result, they tend to use free and open-source tools for their software developments. There are various types of software effort estimation models proposed, published and practiced in the industry. However, there is no such software effort estimation model specifically proposed to estimate the effort of freelance software development. The main objective of this paper is to extend Use Case Point-based software effort estimation for the open-source freelance software development. Initially, details of open source software projects were collected from several freelance software developers. Based on the use case diagrams, Use Case Points counts are then calculated for each project. Taking other effort drivers associated with open source freelance software development also into account, we then estimate the effort of each software development. Our aim is to explore the viability of using Use Case Points as the main effort driver in estimating the effort of open source freelance software development.