This paper aims to provide a basis for the improvement of software-estimation research through a systematic review of previous work. The review identifies 304 software cost estimation papers in 76 journals and classifies the papers according to research topic, estimation approach, research approach, study context and data set. A Web-based library of these cost estimation papers is provided to ease the identification of relevant estimation research results. The review results combined with other knowledge provide support for recommendations for future software cost estimation research, including: 1) increase the breadth of the search for relevant studies, 2) search manually for relevant papers within a carefully selected set of journals when completeness is essential, 3) conduct more studies on estimation methods commonly used by the software industry, and 4) increase the awareness of how properties of the data sets impact the results when evaluating estimation methods

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A Systematic Review of Software Development Cost Estimation Studies

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Virtual Reality (VR) appears a natural medium for computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). However immersive Virtual Reality separates the user from the real world and their traditional tools. An alternative approach is through Mixed Reality (MR), the overlaying of virtual objects on the real world. This allows users to see each other and the real world at the same time as the virtual images, facilitating a high bandwidth of communication between users and intuitive manipulation of the virtual information. We review MR techniques for developing CSCW interfaces and describe lessons learned from developing a variety of collaborative Mixed Reality interfaces. Our recent work involves the use of computer vision techniques for accurate MR registration. We describe this and identify areas for future research.

http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-87512-0_15.pdf

Collaborative Mixed Reality

Virtual reality (VR) has finally come of age for serious applications in the behavioral neurosciences. After capturing the public imagination a decade ago, enthusiasm for VR flagged due to hardware limitations, an absent commercial market and manufacturers who dropped the mass-market products that normally drive technological development. Recently, however, improvements in computer speed, quality of head-mounted displays and wide-area tracking systems have made VR attractive for both research and real-world applications in neuroscience, cognitive science and psychology. New and exciting applications for VR have emerged in research, training, rehabilitation, teleoperation, virtual archeology and tele-immersion.

Virtual reality in behavioral neuroscience and beyond.

This paper summarizes the current state of the art and recent trends in software engineering economics. It provides an overview of economic analysis techniques and their applicability to software engineering and management. It surveys the field of software cost estimation, including the major estimation techniques available, the state of the art in algorithmic cost models, and the outstanding research issues in software cost estimation.

Software engineering economics

activity in the developed world strives not only to maintain status quo activities and lifestyles, but to improve on them. In particular, the application of technology has been focused on improvement. Technology is central to organized society's efforts to improve the lot of individuals and organizations, regardless of one's opinions of the success or failure of instances of technological application or of the ultimate nature of improvement. This ethos of improvement or \"doing better\" has strongly influenced attitudes toward software development and maintenance. From the software crisis of the mid-1960s, well described in [6], to the present day, many concepts, meth-odologies, languages, tools and techniques have been introduced with the aim of improving the software process and its products. Particular initiatives which we will examine here are CASE and the software improvement paradigms of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Software Process Capability Maturity Model (CMM), [10, 13, 14] and the University of Mary-land's Tailoring a Measurement Environment (TAME) project [ 1, 2]. CASE aims at greater automation of software production. Just as CAD/CAM has brought integrated design tools to the engineering of physical systems, CASE is bringing analogous tools to the more abstract engineering of software. Ultimately , the motivation for tool use is economic-for competitive advantage. There are many aspects to competitive advantage, including time-to-market, productivity, quality , product differentiation, distribution and support. Software engineering , however, has a narrower scope, comprising software definition , design, production, and maintenance. CASE aims to improve these activities through the use and integration of software tools. Software improvement has recently received more explicit emphasis , together with a firmer conceptual al and empirical basis, through the work of the SEI on the CMM [10, 13, 14] and the work of Basili and Rombach on the TAME project [1, 2]. Central to both of these major research efforts has been the characterization and improvement of the software process. There are differences in the two improvement paradigms, which

CASE: a testbed for modeling, measurement and management

User participation in information system development is considered to be an important factor influencing implementation success or failure. The ETHICS (Effective Technical and Human Implementation of Computer-based Systems) method was developed as a guide to user involvement in system design. A case study of successful implementation which did not use the ETHICS method explicitly is described. The case study and the ETHICS methodology are then compared and contrasted in an attempt to gain greater insight into user participation and to understand why the implementation was successful. Furthermore, techniques of software process modelling are applied to both ETHICS and the case study with the intention of more closely defining the user participation process and potentially also guiding it in future developments. The case study is used as a vehicle both to examine user participation and also to investigate the modelling of user participation.

A study of user participation in information systems development

Because Function Point Analysis (FPA) has now been in use for a decade, and in spite of its increasing popularity has met with some recent criticisms, it is time to review how appropriate it still is for today's technologies. A critical review of the FPA approach examines in particular the pioneering and continuing work of Albrecht and more recent work by Symons. Technological dependencies in FPA-type metrics are identified and a general model for deriving a new FPA-type metric for a new software technology is given. A model for the calibration of FPA-type metrics for new technologies in terms of a reference technology is also presented. Such calibration is essential for comparative productivity studies. The role of module estimation in exposing parts of the 'anatomy' of the FPA approach is investigated. The derivation and calibration models are applied to a significant case study in which a new FPA-type metric suited to a particular software development technology is derived, calibrated and compared with other published versions of FPA metrics.

Technology Dependence In Function Point Analysis: A Case Study And Critical Review

Effective software cost and size estimation is essential for planning and resource allocation in software development. Recent empirical work which attempts to validate, or which compares, software size and cost estimation models and tools is surveyed. Some observations are made concerning the rather poor results frequently obtained and the need for calibration of models for specific development environments.

Software sizing and costing models: a survey of empirical validation and comparison studies

Data flow diagrams are commonly used in a semi-formal way (together with other associated tools) for the specification of a wide range of data processing applications. The main associated tools are those used for the definitions of data flows and processes, namely so-called data dictionaries, better perhaps lerned system or application dictionaries. A system is described which builds a directly executable model of an application from a data flow diagram/application dictionary specification. The system has certain analogies with data flow machines and languages, and with simulation systems. It is described as a rapid prototyping system because the application specification requirements are minimal, although performance may not be particularly efficient.

Graham Tate

Papers

CASE: a testbed for modeling, measurement and management

A study of user participation in information systems development

Technology Dependence In Function Point Analysis: A Case Study And Critical Review

Software sizing and costing models: a survey of empirical validation and comparison studies

A rapid prototyping system based on data flow principles