Software development has always been characterized by some metrics. One of the greatest challenges for software developers lies in predicting the development effort for a software system which is based on developer abilities, size, complexity and other metrics. Several algorithmic cost estimation models such as Boehm’s COCOMO, Albrecht's' Function Point Analysis, Putnam’s SLIM, ESTIMACS etc. ar...

Lean Manufacturing has helped several industries to achieve operational and manufacturing excellence by increasing productivity and enhancing quality, while reducing waste and costs. However, the wood industry has been historically slow in adopting this philosophy and its many tools. In times when overseas competition has taken big portions of the traditional market share for U.S based wood ind...

Accurate cost estimation helps to complete project within time and budget. Many estimation models have been proposed over the last 30 years. This paper provides a detail overview of existing software cost estimation models and techniques. Cost estimation models are basically of two types: algorithmic and non-algorithmic. It also includes the recent developed techniques for software cost estimat...

For many cases, grading and prioritizing the projects are so important in project-based organizations. In fact, it means prioritizing some projects and allocating organizational resource only to those projects to reach the organization profit up to maximum level through such allocation and decision. There are many different factors contribute in choosing the best project combination for organiz...

The objective of this research is to develop a turbine blade investment casting cost advisor model to assist a blade designer in decision-making in a concurrent engineering environment. It is a microcomputer based cost estimating system that employs a manufacturing knowledge base. The concept of the manufacturing process for blade production by the investment casting method is used to develop t...

Nowadays, software companies have to mange different software development processes based on different time, cost, and number of staff sequentially, which is a very complex task and supports project planning and tracking. Software time, cost and manpower estimation for separate projects is one of the critical and crucial tasks for project managers. Accurate software estimation at an early stage...

Context: Software engineering has a problem in that when we empirically evaluate competing prediction systems we obtain conflicting results. Objective: To reduce the inconsistency amongst validation study results and provide a more formal foundation to interpret results with a particular focus on continuous prediction systems. Method: A new framework is proposed for evaluating competing predict...

In this paper we consider the increasing need for metaanalysis within empirical software engineering. However, we also note that a necessary precondition to such forms of analysis is to have both the results in an appropriate format and sufficient contextural information to avoid misleading inferences. We consider the implications in the field of software project effort estimation and show that...

In this article we give a description of the scope and objectives of the RoBlock project [1]. The RoBlock project is an interdisciplinary research project within the area of intelligent manufacturing systems. The purpose of the project is to develop a platform usable for demonstration of how state-of-the-art technology and methods can be combined to make integrated and flexible manufacturing sy...

magnetic levitation (maglev) is amongst the most advanced technologies that are available to the transportation industries. it has already been noticed by decision makers in many countries around the globe. contrary to such high levels of interest, there are no practical algorithms available to the engineers and/or managers to assist them in analyzing economics of the maglev systems. therefore,...