On Effort Distribution in Software Project Development for Academic Domain

Abstract

Effort distribution in software engineering is a well-known term used to measure cost and effort estimation for each and every phase or activity in software development. Effort distribution is taken in consideration in almost all IT companies while developing software. But it is mostly not considered or overlooked in developing academic software projects by students of computer science courses. The paper presents with results of an experimentation on phase effort distribution data of 84 software academic projects of post graduate final year students of computer science. The phase effort distribution provided by students were collected, analyzed and compared with COCOMO II model which provides effort distribution required in software development. Finally, this paper also discusses and provides recommendation about the use and importance of effort distribution in academic software projects development.