How to Estimate Software Size and Effort in Iterative Development

Iterative development has become the predominant development approach. While providing several benefits for developers, iterative development makes size and effort estimates more difficult. The main problem is incomplete artifacts between iterations. In this paper an approach that enables early size estimation using Unified Modeling Language (UML) artifacts is presented. The approach incorporates self-improvement steps that increase estimation accuracy in subsequent iterations. A demonstration of its applicability and research results are also presented. The results anticipate the possibility of a significant improvement in size and effort estimates by applying the approach presented here.