Author:
Emilia Mendes
Affiliation:
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Keyword(s):
Web engineering, Web effort estimation, Expert-based effort models, Knowledge elicitation, Case studies.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Data Engineering
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Health Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Knowledge Management
;
Ontologies and the Semantic Web
;
Operational Research
;
Project Management
;
Society, e-Business and e-Government
;
Software Engineering
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE – The objective of this paper is to describe a case study where Bayesian Networks (BNs) were used to construct an expert-based Web effort model. METHOD – We built a single-company BN model solely elicited from expert knowledge, where the domain experts were two experienced Web project managers from a medium-size Web company in Auckland, New Zealand. This model was validated using data from eleven past finished Web projects. RESULTS – The BN model has to date been successfully used to estimate effort for numerous Web projects. CONCLUSIONS – Our results suggest that, at least for the Web Company that participated in this case study, the use of a model that allows the representation of uncertainty, inherent in effort estimation, can outperform expert-based estimates. Another nine companies have also benefited from using Bayesian Networks, with very promising results.