Software Schedule and Cost Estimation Workshop

The 4-day Software Schedule and Cost Estimation Workshop trains participants in the techniques necessary to produce realistic software development estimates, and trains software managers to predict the cost and schedule impacts of their management decisions. The workshop provides an understanding of the software development environment and the use of existing methodologies and tools to achieve accurate schedule and resource estimates. The workshop uses a case study approach to give the student as much practical experience as possible within the workshop.

This workshop specifically provides:

	Experience in estimating the effective size of a software development task, including the effects of software modifications and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software.
	A realistic software estimating problem that demonstrates the major problems an estimator encounters in a wide range of software tasks. The case study takes the student beyond data input and forces reasoning to resolve the estimating problem.
	Experience in evaluating personnel and development environment effects on the software development cost and schedule.
	Experience in evaluating the product-related impacts on the software development cost and schedule.

The detailed program for this workshop is described in the following Software Cost and Schedule Estimating Workshop Schedule.

Workshop Schedule

Day	Subject Matter
1	Introduction to software cost estimation Estimating models and parameters Introduction to size and complexity estimation Introduction to environment and product evaluation Estimating tool demonstration and comparison
2	Basic cost and schedule estimates Cost and schedule constrained solutions Size estimation Complexity evaluation
3	Faultless Software (FSC) case study introduction FSC size and complexity evaluation exercise Developer capability evaluation FSC developer evaluation exercise FSC project environment evaluation
4	Project environment evaluation (con.) FSC project evaluation exercise FSC cost and schedule evaluation exercise FSC project status evaluation and conflict resolution Software estimates and project replanning Workshop review, summary, and Rules to Remember

A 3-day version of the estimating course is available with an abbreviated introduction and case study.