This course provides an introduction to the tools and techniques of a cost estimation process using the COCOMO II model as implemented in the SystemStar software tool. This process features a simple, flexible, and powerful qualitative method that has helped projects of all sizes to avoid potentially disastrous problems and to achieve success. The estimation process can be used in Proposal Evaluation, in software project estimation, and in tracking software development or maintenance progress.
This cost and schedule estimation process can help any project team to proactively plan, track, and control project cost and schedule. Course participants receive training on the SystemStar estimation tool, cost estimation checklists, data collection forms, and estimation folder contents. Participants learn through practical exercises based on actual project data. In addition to cost estimation, participants are introduced to data requirements for proposals and for tracking project cost and progress.
Upon completion of the course, participants will know:
The process is consistent with the Software Engineering Institute’s SW-SMM and CMMI. The process is structured to be consistent with the Project Management Institute’s Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge.
Project managers, proposal managers, project team leaders, and software engineering and technical personnel should all benefit from attending the course and acquiring this highly effective and successful process.
Participants should bring laptops or have access to computers loaded with the SystemStar Cost Estimation Tool (this can be loaded the first day of the course) and spreadsheet software. Practical exercises will use these tools. Lecture notes and the book Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II are distributed on the first day of the course. The lecture notes are for participants only and are not for sale.
Dr. Betsy Clark has been involved in the practical application of measurement for predicting, controlling and improving software process and product quality for the past 22 years. She has worked with commercial clients, defense contractors and government to generate objective forecasts of costs and schedules throughout the software lifecycle. Over the past twenty years, she has had extensive experience with the COCOMO and SLIM software cost models. Dr. Clark worked with Dr. Barry Boehm to develop a model for estimating the cost to integrate commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components into applications.
Dr. Betsy Clark has written widely in the field of software measurement. She is a co-author of Practical Software Measurement: A Guide to Objective Program Insight (published by Addison-Wesley). Dr. Clark was a principal contributor to the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) work to define a core set of measures for implementation throughout the DoD. She is also the author of a chapter on software progress measures in a forthcoming book edited by the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG). She is a Certified Function Point Specialist.
Dr. Brad Clark is an independent consultant in the area of software measurement with 12 years experience in software development and management best practices. He has worked with Dr. Barry Boehm since the inception of the COCOMO II model in 1994 to maintain the COCOMO II model. He helped define the model, collect and analyze data, and calibrate the model. Dr. Clark is also a Visiting Scientist at the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. He works in the Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis group.
Dr. Brad Clark is a co-author of the book Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II. He wrote the chapter that describes how the model works. He published an article on IEEE Software on Quantifying the Effects of Process Improvement on Effort. He is the principle author on the SEI course “Managing Software Projects with Metrics.”
Dr. Clark's 9 year career as a naval aviator included flying A-6 aircraft off and on aircraft carrier flight decks around the world. He has 300 carrier landings.