Estimating CASE development size from outline specifications

Size is a significant variable in cost/estimation modelling and is widely regarded as one of the most important determinants of effort. The research documented here was carried out in response to problems associated with estimation in project management. This paper discusses some empirical evidence arising from a study of design size estimation. The approach used here is to count the number of lines in the automatically generated CASE report. These are then used in the estimation equations as a measurement unit. Results from this study are shown to support earlier conjectures that design size can be estimated from early system specifications in CASE development environments. The study concludes that accurate size estimations can be made using data from early system specifications.