Efficient effort estimation system viz. function points and quality assurance coverage

Software development effort estimation is important for quality management in the software development industry, yet its automation still remains a challenging issue. Accurate estimation of software effort is critical in software engineering. Existing methods for software cost estimation will use very few quality factors for the estimation. So, in order to overcome this drawback, the authors proposed an efficient effort estimation system based on quality assurance coverage. This study is a basis for the improvement of software effort estimation research through a series of quality attributes along with constructive cost model (COCOMO). The classification of software system for which the effort estimation is to be calculated based on COCOMO classes. For this quality assurance ISO 9126 quality factors are used and for the weighing factors the function point metric is used as an estimation approach. Effort is estimated for MS word 2007 using the following models: Albrecht and Gaffney model, Kemerer model, SMPEEM model (Software Maintenance Project Effort Estimation Model and FP Matson, Barnett and Mellichamp model.