Task Definition Through the Use of Work Breakdown Structure and Empirical Assessment Methods
Task Definition Through the Use of Work Breakdown Structure and Empirical Assessment Methods
Work breakdown structure methods. If the software product is large enough and complex, in all likelihood, estimation of costs for the development and testing of this product will require a great deal of time and effort. It is also very likely that in this situation the organization will have to appoint a project manager to assume responsibility for meeting the financial estimates and project schedule, and the testing team will need to provide the project manager with the original data in a special format. The project manager can charge each group of specialists to give their own cost estimate using one of the technologies such as budget & work schedule limitations, similarity to other project patterns, expert assessment. On the other hand, the manager can use a more unified approach, according to which the software product is divided into blocks either by the number of lines of program code or by functional points, and then some estimation algorithm is applied to the blocks. If this approach is used, then the testing team should make its own independent assessment, say, an expert one, and make sure that the application of the algorithmic approach makes sense.
Mobile testing companies look forward to identifying and eliminating all possible performance bottlenecks in mobile apps. In so doing they can ensure that the programs will smoothly work across a multitude of devices and platforms.
Empirical assessment methods. There are many assessment models that can be used to calculate the cost of developing a project to create a software product. The basis of these models is the number of lines of program code (LOC – number of lines) or functional points (FP – functional points), and for the same initial data, these models give different results. A key condition for implementing any of the models is to calibrate the model relative to local conditions by using it on completed projects and adjusting it to actual data so that it can yield predictable results.
Obtaining a general assessment. Study the summary assessment form and find the minimum and maximum cost estimates for each task. Perhaps, based on own experience or statistics obtained from other projects, it will be possible to sharply throw away values, designating them as unrealistic ones. Add together the maximum and minimum estimates to obtain a labor cost estimate for the entire project.
