Research Objectives

The objectives of the research project, presented below in an approximate sequence of their achievement, include the following:

i.          To investigate the hypothesis that long-term software evolution can be characterised by a series of stages and that each stage can be linked to an economic model which provides a good predictor of effort

ii.          To identify and customise data extraction and cleansing tools for exploitation of records generally generated by the organisations and teams evolving long-lived software

iii.         To empirically evaluate and, if necessary, refine a three-activity approach to software resource estimation

iv.         To instantiate the three activities of the estimation approach (segmentation, modelling, change detection) using several techniques and determine predictive accuracy using empirical data reflecting industrial, commercial and open source environments

v.         To present the results in a form that is widely available (e.g. results and tools made available through the project website)

 For further details contact: Juan Fernandez-Ramil or Sarah Beecham                

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