Common Practices and Problems in Effort Data Collection in the Software Industry

Effort data is crucial for project management activities in software projects. This data is utilized in estimations that are required for project planning, in the formation of benchmarking data sets and as a main input for project monitoring and control activities. However, there are known problems regarding effort data collection in the industry. In this study we investigate the effort data collection practices in the industry and factors that lead to inaccurate effort data collection. A pilot study was conducted to observe problems in effort data collection and a survey is conducted to observe the existence of these problems in the industry as well as causes of these problems. In this paper, findings of these studies are presented along with certain suggestions to improve the quality of effort data.