Distributed Global Development Parametric Cost Modeling

Abstract

Geographically distributed development processes are becoming ever more pervasive on modern software projects. Software is developed collaboratively in multiple locations around the world, and projects are being contracted out in whole or part for economic leverage. Projects are often split among distributed teams, where the teams contribute different portions of work per phase to take advantage of their skill sets and rates. Thus there is a need for new parametric cost estimation models where effort multipliers are phase-sensitive. Working with industrial partners, a unique model has been developed to better estimate globally distributed projects where work is allocated by phase, rather than along the lines of specific functionality. The distributed development model allows for work distribution by phase per team (and per module), different environmental characteristics of the teams, localized labor categories, calendars, compensation rates and currencies for costing. It also provides a generalized scheme for user-defined global lifecycle processes that include calibrated effort and schedule distributions. A representative example project shows primary inputs and some fine-grained outputs available with the model.