Preliminary results from a case study of effort estimation for net-centric applications at the undergraduate level

Presents preliminary results from an ongoing case study of effort estimation for net-centric applications in an undergraduate software engineering class. For two consecutive course offerings, students´ effort estimates were tracked against the same project: modifying a Web-site log analyzer program. The question was to see if the application domain of net-centric computing is qualitatively different, quantitatively different, or both, from “regular” software applications. In both classes, the effort estimates produced by the students were quite erratic, a finding that might be traced, in part, to inadequate requirements engineering, to the novelty of the application domain and to the students´ inexperience. The study is of interest in part due to the novelty of net-centric applications, which are representative of the sort of modern software system that the students will likely work on when they enter the workforce