Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Complexity
Familiarity
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Figure ..1
Effort for complexity vs. familiarity.
Any project has a lot of complexity. The bigger the project, the more complex it
is. In fact, complexity rises faster than rise in project size. This is especially true for
software testing projects. The greater the complexity, the greater will be the effort
required. So complexity plays a very important part in effort estimation. You must
define effort types for this reason. More complex parts need more effort, and less
complex parts need less effort. Here it is interesting to know that familiarity also
plays a vital role in effort estimation. For instance, a complex part may be familiar
to the team, as they may have worked on similar assignments in the past and so are
very familiar with this task. In this case, effort will be much less than if the team
was not familiar with the task. So for effort estimation it is also a good idea to create
a matrix based on complexity and familiarity with each part of the project.
As you can see in Figure 4.1, as complexity increases, effort increases steeply,
whereas as familiarity increases, effort decreases steeply. That is why it is better to
hire experienced people on the project even at substantially higher salaries than to
hire inexperienced people at a fraction of that salary.
..1 Estimation by Experience
Experience no doubt plays an important role in effort estimation. Even in so-called
objective calculation of effort estimation, all aspects are not completely objective
and a certain percentage of subjective assessment goes in. And that is where experi-
ence counts. In fact, based on experience the entire effort can be calculated to a
certain degree of accuracy without requiring any help from statistical methods.
Some of the areas in objective effort calculation methods such as test point analysis
(TPA) where subjective assessments creep in include calculation for productivity
