Software Effort Estimation Techniques in the IT Sectors-A Review

Software Effort Estimation is an important area of research in software engineering. Various effort estimation models (COCOMO, SLIM, SEER, etc.) have been developed in the past which follows mathematical model for estimation. Out of all these techniques, mathematical model is widely used under which three common techniques are used. These three techniques include use case method, function point method and a derivative of function point method called cosmic function point. Each method has its own implementation methodology, which will be explores all these methods and demonstrates the pros and cons of these methods in the real time software effort estimation. Finally a comparison between all these methods is made .The values of this work is in helping better understand how software engineers make decisions between the models, when they start estimation. This work also enables project managers to elicit software project features based on the models to the client in crystal clear manner.