Statement of the Problem

Tools do not exist to estimate costs accurately and effectively for systems engineering efforts.

Purpose of the Study

In similar fashion to the highly-successful COCOMO project for software cost estimation, the University of Southern California (USC) Center for Software Engineering (CSE) is creating a constructive cost estimation model for systems engineering. USC-CSE has teamed with over 20 companies, the INCOSE Measurement Working Group, and SECOE to gather sufficient and correct information for the cost model.

Approach

The approach being used has several steps:

• Develop a reference framework
• Define drivers for cost and size
• Perform Delphi analysis of the driver impacts by a large panel of SE experts
• Gather actual project cost data from participating companies
• Formulate model parameters using Bayesian analysis of both the Delphi and project data

More information can be found on the USC-CSE COSYSMO page.

Status

The project has been making steady progress since 2001. Current status may be found on the COSYSMO Repository.

Contact Information

For further information on this project, contact Ricardo Valerdi, the project leader.

This project is being performed as a doctoral research under the guidance of Dr. Barry Boehm, a SECOE participant.

Page last modified 18 Feb 04