In particular, this generation of COCOMO provides range estimates rather than point estimates. The COCOMO II strategy is to preserve the openness of the original COCOMO model, tailor it to the marketplace just described, key the inputs and outputs to the level of information available, and enable the model to be tailored to various project process strategies.
Projects that require teams of people working over months or years are the primary target market for software cost estimation models. Infrastructure developers (750,000) developing domain-independent components such as operating systems, database management systems, networks, and user interface frameworksĮnd users are not targeted by COCOMO II because they tend to do very rapid, small-scale efforts for which simple activity-based estimation is adequate. System integrators (700,000) dealing with larger scale systems, unprecedented systems, few-of-a-kind applications, embedded systems requiring up-front engineering, and other substantial custom software developmentĥ. Component integrators (700,000) building applications rapidly from existing GUI builders, database/object managers, middleware, and domain-specific componentsĤ. Component developers (600,000) generating end-user applications and composition aidsģ.
End-user programmers (55 million) generating spreadsheets or database queriesĢ.
USC speculates that the post-2000 software marketplace will include five distinct populations:ġ. To provide a quantitative analytic framework for evaluating software technologies and their economic impact To develop a software cost database and tool support for improvement of the cost modelģ. To develop a software cost and schedule estimation model for the life-cycle practices of the 1990s and 2000sĢ. (They include AT&T Bell Labs, Bellcore, DISA, EDS, E-Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Hughes, IDA, IDE, JPL, Litton Data Systems, Lockheed Martin, Loral, MDAC, Motorola, Northrop-Grumman, Rational, Rockwell, SAIC, SEI, SPC, TASC, Teledyne, Texas Instruments, TRW, USAF Rome Labs, US Army Research Lab, and Xerox.) The objectives of this project are threefold:ġ. The COCOMO II project is an effort being performed by the USC Center for Software Engineering, with the financial and technical support of numerous industry affiliates.