Review Comments on U08784-SPM T3-2008
Coursework Assignment

Document	Part 1: Software Cost and Timescale Estimation
Reviewed By	Timothy Au
Date	31-Oct-2008
Document Status	First Draft
Version	1.00

Part One

1. Refer to the Project Plan provided in my website (Do not just copy).

2. Provide at least one or two paragraphs on System scope and boundary, System objective and System Overview as an introduction – around 6-8 high-level functional components.(Mandatory Optional)

3. Provide a brief description of the 25-30 functionalities (one or two lines each) if you have time; also include those non-functional requirement i.e. quality, security and resources possible challenges. (Optional)

4. Explain on how you would use Function Point Analysis (IFPUG Mk II) for this case study. (Optional) Actually, FPA is for sizing. (FYI)

5. You should use the worksheet provided. In this case, the Function Worksheet will also estimate cost, effort and duration. Provide reasonable justification and explanations on your calculations on cost, effort and duration. (Mandatory)

6. Function Point Worksheet: A list of function around 25-30 transactions or functionalities should be enough for the function point counting. You are not required to draw the DFD’s before knowing the actual Input, Output and Storage counts for each transaction. It is just a “ballpark” estimation at the project initial stages, perhaps planning stage. You may provide a function-entities table if you like, but this is absolutely optional.

7. Each of the transactions or functions has around 8-15 counts. Of course, it very depends on the levels of abstraction or level of details of the functions you are describing. The UFPC would be somewhat around 600. You should able to predict from this function point count (UFPC) that the duration (elapsed time) should be around 300 man-days (15 months).

8. Bear in mind, besides those 3GL or 4GL factor, % may be applied to the AFPC depends on your confidence, programmer skills, risk factors, etc.

9. You may also use COCOMO II to evaluate the cost, effort and duration as a comparison to those calculated from the Function Point worksheet. (Optional)

10. In this case, you will find the required manpower around 3-7 persons. Otherwise, please fine tune the function point counting from the worksheet for each of the 25-30 transaction and the adjustment factor to get your desired result on the effort. Hence, the cost and duration should also be changed.

11. What you have calculated from the above is actually the development cost (from requirement analysis, design, programming, testing, implementation, deployment, user training, and up-to handover to customer but not the subsequent support and maintenance charges).

In the real world, this is why people would request the vendor to provide nursery period, warranty and even support and maintenance hours or coupons.

You may also include the TOTAL COST = DEVELOPMENT COST + HARDWARE COST + SOFTWARE COST; OR

TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (5-YEAR) RECURRING COST = TOTAL COST AS ABOVE + RECURRING COST IN 5-YEAR

In this question paper, the assignment does not ask for any total cost or total cost of ownership. So, this is also absolutely optional in the case study. However, again, this is definitely important to evaluate the TCO instead of just the development cost!! Moreover, in the real world, financial cash flow, depreciation of the software, the market value or the business value of the project and hence the ROI, are of vital importance to the management.

12. In real-world project management, calculating the manpower effort, say 300 man-days, is just the primitive information resources planning. Indeed, calculating the no. of headcounts i.e. 3-7 persons only provides a rough idea on how many people required doing the project. It is not resources planning.

Your question paper does not require you to provide a resources planning. So, this is also absolutely optional in the case study. As a project manager, should you be able to tell how many staff is required, what type of staff, what kind of skills is required and by what time the staff is needed.

13. In a complete project plan, a project manager should be aware of any risk and uncertainties. Hence, usually a contingency plan should be provided. (Optional)

14. Regardless, nobody tells you to do so. A report should have an introduction and a conclusion and/or recommendation. It is not required by the question paper. Your report will look more professional if you do include a recommendation on the project. Now, it is the Project Initiation Stage, you are going to recommend the senior management to go or no-go to proceed on the next stage of the project. (Mandatory Optional)

15. If you are having a development methodology or development approach or any information architecture that you think it is useful to your project, you better name it and briefly describe its benefits in layman terms.(Optional).

** THE END OF REPORT **