COST ESTIMATION TOOL FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS A CASE STUDY OF UNICAL COMPUTER CENTRE (SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT UNIT)

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges for software project leader is to successfully deliver on all aspects of a project both according to the client's specifications and within the allotted budget. More software projects have failed due to lack of proper estimation of cost at the outset of the project than any other reason. Our estimating techniques are generally poor and given low priority. When the software estimation process is performed accurately, the benefits realized far outweigh the cost of doing the estimation. Some of the major benefits include lowering the cost of doing business, increasing the probability of winning new contracts, increasing and broadening the skill - level of key staff members. As a result of this, there is need to focus some effort on improving the situation by developing a reliable and efficient tool to estimate the cost of developing software. Thus, the aim of this project is to provide a software tool to accurately give the estimated cost of developing a software project.