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Program Understanding Behavior During Estimation of Enhancement Effort on Small Java Programs

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Product Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2188))

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Abstract

Good effort estimation is considered a key success factor for competitive software creation services. In this study, task level effort estimation by project leaders and software designers have been investigated in two Internet software service companies through an experiment. Protocol analysis of 27 think-aloud estimations of effort required for consecutive change tasks on a small Java program have been analysed, using the AFECS coding scheme. Results indicate that a) effort estimation at the task level is very different depending on the individual, even when small problems are addressed; b) AFECS seems be appropriate to use as a coding scheme when assessing program comprehension behaviour for the purpose of effort estimation; c) protocol analysis of comprehension during effort estimation does not necessarily capture all process elements. These results can be used to further guide detailed analysis of individual task level effort estimation, as can a set of high-level estimation events indicated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ABB Corporate Research, 90, N-1375, Billingstad, Norway

    Lars Bratthall

  2. Dept. Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Erik Arisholm & Magne Jørgensen

Authors
  1. Lars Bratthall
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  2. Erik Arisholm
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  3. Magne Jørgensen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer IESE, Sauerwiesen 6, 67661, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Frank Bomarius

  2. VTT Electronics, P.O. Box 1100, 90571, Oulu, Finland

    Seija Komi-Sirviö

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bratthall, L., Arisholm, E., Jørgensen, M. (2001). Program Understanding Behavior During Estimation of Enhancement Effort on Small Java Programs. In: Bomarius, F., Komi-Sirviö, S. (eds) Product Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2188. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44813-6_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44813-6_30

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42571-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44813-6

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