QW2002 Paper 3P2

Mr. Raja Mohapatra & Mr. Bibhash Saha
(Infosys Technologies Ltd)

Effort Estimation for QA Projects Statistical Approaches & Challenges

Key Points

Presentation Abstract

Effective effort estimation is one of the most challenging and important activities in software project lifecycle. Though there are too many variables human, technical, environmental, political which can affect the ultimate effort applied to develop it, software project estimation can be transformed from a black art to a series of systematic steps that provide estimate with acceptable risk.

There are many popular options available for estimations of projects, which follows SDLC. However in case of projects involving only testing, there is not much of insight to evolve with a proper estimation model. Traditionally estimation of effort for testing has been more of a ballpark percentage of the rest of the development life cycle stages. This approach to estimation cannot be applied for projects, which do not have much insight into the other phases of the SDLC. Also there is no estimation model for projects doing only test planning or scripting for the customers. Hence overall and LC wise estimation for testing related projects is still a challenge.

In this paper we will discuss the step by step approach that we followed at Infosys in evolving a model for effort estimation of such projects using statistical multivariate regression model. We will discuss the typical SDLC for QA projects, challenges faced in estimation, different parameters affecting the estimation, test of significance of each and every parameter and finally finding out the partial regression co-efficient.

This method has been deployed in some projects at Infosys and we will also discuss the outcome.

About the Author

Raja Bibhash has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Calcutta University. Prior to joining Infosys he was working with Larsen and Tourbo Ltd, India as an Executive and involved into Engineering, project planning & Quality Assurance activities for Manufacturing and process industry. He was also involved there in ISO 9001 initiative and SAP implementation. In Infosys Bibhash is working as a Software Quality Advisor and extensively involved in Process deployment, Metric Analysis, Statistical Process Control and various improvement initiatives in Infosys.

Raja Mohapatra has a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Roorkee. Prior to joining Infosys he was working with Reliance Industries Ltd, India as an Asst Manager- Inspection, involved in Quality Assurance activities, subcontracting management, maintenance planning and monitoring in various plants like power, process and fibre. He was also involved there in ISO 9001 initiative and SAP implementation. In Infosys Raja is working as a Software Quality Advisor and extensively involved in Process deployment, Metric Analysis, Statistical Process Control and various improvement initiatives in Infosys.