The validation of a political model of information systems development cost estimating
SIGCPR '91 Proceedings of the 1991 conference on SIGCPR
Why is Software Late? An Empirical Study of Reasons for Delay in Software Development
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
TRI-Ada '92 Proceedings of the conference on TRI-Ada '92
Estimation of information systems development efforts: a pilot study
Information and Management
Causes of inaccurate software development cost estimates
Journal of Systems and Software
An empirical analysis of software effort estimate alterations
Journal of Systems and Software
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
A framework for the analysis of software cost estimation accuracy
Proceedings of the 2006 ACM/IEEE international symposium on Empirical software engineering
A Systematic Review of Software Development Cost Estimation Studies
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
Factors affecting duration and effort estimation errors in software development projects
Information and Software Technology
Any other cost estimation inhibitors?
Proceedings of the Second ACM-IEEE international symposium on Empirical software engineering and measurement
Journal of Systems and Software
Investigating intentional distortions in software cost estimation - An exploratory study
Journal of Systems and Software
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Cost estimation is important for planning, scheduling, budgeting and pricing of software development. Previous research has mainly focused on improving estimates and the associated processes. However, there is still a lack of research on human and organizational aspects of cost estimation and informal uses of cost estimates. This paper presents initial findings from a qualitative study addressing these questions. Based on four semi-structured interviews with experienced managers from different software developing organizations we have identified a number of aspects not commonly discussed in the cost estimation literature. The analysis indicates that cost estimates are used not only for prediction and planning, but also play a role in power plays within the organizations based on the stakeholders' differing interests. There are also human and organizational factors that are likely to influence the quality of estimates. We also suggest a basic taxonomy of attributes that could be used to structure the many issues involved in and affecting software cost estimation. We conclude that there are many factors that affect software cost estimation and need to be considered in future research. Longer-term this is important not only for cost estimation but can also be useful to understand how human and organizational factors affect software development processes in general.