Software cost estimation is one of the most challenging task in project management. However, the process of estimation is uncertain in nature as it largely depends upon some attributes that are quite unclear during the early stages of development. In this paper a soft computing technique is explored to overcome the uncertainty and imprecision in estimation. The main objective of this research is to investigate the role of fuzzy logic technique in improving the effort estimation accuracy using COCOMO II by characterizing inputs parameters using Gaussian, trapezoidal and triangular membership functions and comparing their results. NASA (93) dataset is used in the evaluation of the proposed Fuzzy Logic COCOMO II. After analyzing the results it had been found that effort estimation using Gaussian member function yields better results for maximum criterions when compared with the other methods.

Software effort estimation is very crucial in software project planning. Accurate software estimation is very critical for a project success. There are many software prediction models and all of them utilize software size as a key factor to estimate effort. Function Points size metric is a popular method for estimating and measuring the size of application software based on the functionality of the software from the user’s point of view. While there is a great advancement in software development, the weight values assigned to count standard FP remains the same. In this paper the concepts of calibrating the function point weights using Type-2 fuzzy logic framework is provided whose aim is to estimate a more accurate software size for various software applications and to improve the effort estimation of software projects. Evaluation experiments have shown the framework to be promising.

Software cost estimation is an important phase in software development. It predicts the amount of effort and development time required to build a software system. It is one of the most critical tasks and an accurate estimate provides a strong base to the development procedure. In this paper, the most widely used software cost estimation model, the Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) is discussed. The model is implemented with the help of artificial neural networks and trained using the perceptron learning algorithm. The COCOMO dataset is used to train and to test the network. The test results from the trained neural network are compared with that of the COCOMO model. The aim of our research is to enhance the estimation accuracy of the COCOMO model by introducing the artificial neural networks to it.