Software Engineering Economics Course outline - University of Sargodha

Course Title: Software Engineering Economics
Course Code: SE-4342
Course Structure: Lectures: 3/Labs: 0
Credit Hours:3

Prerequisites: CMP-3310 (Software Engineering)

Course Objective:

The course is aimed to develop students' software cost estimation skills using industry
standards.

Course Syllabus:

The Software Life-Cycle.The Waterfall Model.The Software Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Software Maintenance.The Basic COCOMO Model.Development Modes.Model-Product Level
Estimates.Performance Models & Cost Effectiveness Models.Decision Criteria.Present vs.
Future Expenditure & Income - Cost Analysis.Goals as Constraints.Coping with Un-reconcilable
& Un-quantified Goals.Detailed COCOMO. Detailed COCOMO Cost Drivers. Detailed
COCOMO Cost Drivers-Personal Attributes: ACAP, AEXP, PCAP, VEXP, LEXP. Detailed
COCOMO Cost Drivers: Project Attributes-Modern Programming Practices, Use of Software
Tools, Schedule Constraint.

Course Outline:

1. The Software Life-Cycle: The Waterfall Model, Economic Rationale for the WM,
Refinements of the WM, Life-Cycle Phase/Activity, The Software Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) Software Maintenance. The Basic COCOMO Model: Introduction,
Definitions & Assumptions, Development Effort & Schedule, Phase Distribution, Nominal

Project Profiles, The Rayleigh Distribution, Interpolation, Basic Software Maintenance Effort
Estimation [TB: Ch. 4, 5]

2.      Development Modes: Introduction, Basic Effort & Schedule Equations, COCOMO Modes of
Software Development, COCOMO Effort & Schedule Equations, Phase Distribution of
Effort & Schedule. Activity Distribution. Limitations of Basic COCOMO [TB: Ch. 6, 7]

3.      Model-Product Level Estimates: Introduction, Software Development Effort Estimation,
Estimate of Annual Maintenance, Interpolation & Extrapolation, Estimating the Effects of
Adapting Existing Software, Intermediate COCOMO Effort Equations. Component Level
Estimation: Introduction, the Component Level Estimating Form (CLEF), Using CLEF with
Adapted Software. [TB: Ch. 8, 9]

4.      Performance Models & Cost Effectiveness Models: Performance Models, Optimal
Performance, Sensitivity Analysis, Cost Effectiveness Models. Economies of Scale: Discrete
Production Functions, Basic Production Functions, Economies & Diseconomies of Scale,
Diseconomies of Scale on Large Software Projects. [TB: Ch. 10, 11]

5.      Decision Criteria: Minimum Available Budget, Minimum Performance Requirement,
Maximum Effectiveness-Cost Ratio, Maximum Effectiveness-Cost Difference, Composite
Options. Net Value & Marginal Analysis. [TB: Ch. 12,13]

6.      Cost Analysis, Interest Calculation, Present Value Calculation, Value of a Series of Cash
Flows, Present Value Characteristics, Sensitivity to Interest Rate or Discount Rate,
Applications to SE. Figures of Merit: Software Package Selection, Net Value Analysis,
Figure of Merit Analysis, A Weighted Sum Analysis for Hardware & Software Selection.
[TB: Ch. 14, 15]

7.      Goals as Constraints: System Reliability & Availability, Figure of Merit Evaluation,
Expressing Goals as Constraints, Goals as Constraints: Feasible Sets & Cost Value Contours,
Decision Problems with Constraints, SE Applications, Mathematical Optimization
Techniques, Capabilities& Limitation of Mathematical Optimization Techniques. Systems
Analysis & Constrained Optimization (TB: Ch 16, 17)

8.      Coping with Un-reconcilable & Un-quantified Goals: In-House vs. Vendor Development,
Presentation Methods, Unquantifiable Criteria, Presentation Techniques for Unquantifiable
Criteria, Presenting & Interpreting Multivariate Data. Coping with Uncertainties: Decision
Rules for Complete Uncertainty, Subjective Probabilities, Decision Rules Under Complete
Uncertainty, The Value of Information, Subjective Probabilities, Utility Functions, SE
Implications. [TB: Ch 18, 19]

9.      Detailed COCOMO: Summary & Operational Description: The Software Hierarchy
Estimating Form & Procedures, Detailed COCOMO Example, Schedule Adjustment
Calculations. Detailed COCOMO Cost Drivers: Product Attributes -Required Software
Reliability, Data base Size, Software Product Complexity [TB: Ch. 23, 24]

10. Detailed COCOMO Cost Drivers: Computer Attributes -Execution Time, Main Storage
Constraint, Virtual Machine Volatility, Computer Turn Around Time [TB: Ch 25]

11. Detailed COCOMO Cost Drivers-Personal Attributes: ACAP, AEXP, PCAP, VEXP, LEXP.
[TB: Ch. 26]

12. Detailed COCOMO Cost Drivers: Project Attributes-Modern Programming Practices, Use of
Software Tools, Schedule Constraint [TB: Ch 27]

Reference Material:

• Software Engineering Economics by Boehm, Prentice Hall, 1981.ISBN-10: 0138221227.

Reference Books:

•         Estimating Software Costs: Bringing Realism to Estimating by Capers Jones, McGraw-
Hill Osborne Media; 2nd Edition (April 19, 2007).ISBN-10: 0071483004

•          Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II by Barry W. Boehm, Chris Abts, A. Winsor
Brown and Sunita Chulani, Prentice Hall (August 11, 2000). ISBN-10: 0130266922.

•          Software Cost Estimation and Sizing Methods, Issues, and Guidelines by Shari Lawrence
Pfleeger, Rand Publishing (September 13, 2005). ISBN-10: 0833037137.

•          Software Engineering Economics and Declining Budgets by Pamela T. Geriner, Thomas
R. Gulledge, William P. Hutzler, Springer London, Limited, (31-Jul-2012)

Note: This content is obtained from official documents of University of Sargodha and applied on BS Computer Science for Main Campus, Sub Campuses, and Affiliated Colleges.