Calculating Software Projects on a Mockup based approach

Before starting software projects proper cost estimation for accurate project planning and staffing is required. The project requirements, which are normally not well defined in the early stage of a project, need to be considered carefully for a comprehensive calculation. In order to discuss and understand the project requirements, Mock-Ups or Prototypes are often used, as they provide the possibility of analyzing the potential customer’s requirements. Because they show the way the software works and how they get in touch with it, Mock-Ups are a suitable approach for visualizing needs. In this paper we propose a method using Mock-Ups not only to understand and discuss the project requirements but for proper cost estimation. For achieving this, we use the semantically enriched Mock-Up elements for cost estimation.