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This paper aims to examine the process for estimation of efforts for software development and suggests a framework for estimating software development costs and ensuring quality of code in e-Government projects from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With no established processes for estimation of efforts, the Government relied on open bids from the market to develop these e-Government applications.

The paper adopts an exploratory case study approach to analyze the e-Government applications in Andhra Pradesh. Using data from the information technology department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the paper evolves a framework to compute costs of software development, based on the software development life cycle.

The framework helps in arriving at a hurdle price before the tender process. The study has shown that an e-Government application in AP state would cost Rs. 224,000, or US$2,969.25, for a simple application, and Rs. 33,60,000, or US$44,538.71, for a complex application over a five-year period, depending on the complexity and size of the application. This information would be useful to the Government decision-makers for expanding e-Government.

Further research may assess the utility of this framework for e-Government support activities like automation of data centers, video conferencing facilities and ushering in financial technologies for encouraging cashless payments.

The paper provides information that could be of value at a national level (for India) and at the same time providing a guide for other countries that would like to adopt this framework.

The objectives of this paper are to discuss the constraints stemming from the unstructured nature of the cost estimation practice in Turkey and introduce a generic computer aided building cost estimation model based on a cost significant technique for Turkish construction sector public projects in its detailed design phase.

The research design was based on the simplified version of the bill of quantities method and a cost significant estimating model works on a cost database was suggested to overcome the problems. Underlying principles and basic steps of cost estimation based on cost significant work packages was explained by means of manual calculations.

In order to automate the manual building cost estimation process, the software based on cost significant work packages was developed.

The software is currently in the testing phase and is being used for educational purposes. Making use of both public sector and current market prices in the cost estimation process, increasing number of projects stored in the database for more accurate results, estimating costs of different types of projects and calculating the cost significant value factor more precisely by using statistical techniques, those being employed by global cost models are suggested for future research.

As the number of the similar projects in database is increased, the accuracy of the cost estimation is also increased.

Estimators and graduate students can use the software to estimate building cost of public housing projects in its detailed design phase.

Due to the limitation of acknowledgment, the complexity of software system and the interference of noises, this paper aims to solve the traditional problem: traditional software cost estimation methods face the challenge of poor and uncertain inputs.

Under such circumstances, different cost estimation methods vary greatly on estimation accuracy and effectiveness. Therefore, it is crucial to perform evaluation and selection on estimation methods against a poor information database. This paper presents a grey rough set model by introducing grey system theory into rough set based analysis, aiming for a better choice of software cost estimation method on accuracy and effectiveness.

The results are very encouraging in the sense of comparison among four machine learning techniques and thus indicate it an effective approach to evaluate software cost estimation method where insufficient information is provided.

Based on the grey rough set model, the decision targets can be classified approximately. Furthermore, the grey of information and the limitation of cognition can be overcome during the use of the grey rough interval correlation cluster method.

This paper proposed the grey rough set model combining grey system theory with rough set for software cost estimation method evaluation and selection.

This paper is focused at studying the current state of research involving the four dimensions of defect management strategy, i.e. software defect analysis, software quality, software reliability and software development cost/effort.

The methodology developed by Kitchenham (2007) is followed in planning, conducting and reporting of the systematic review. Out of 625 research papers, nearly 100 primary studies related to our research domain are considered. The study attempted to find the various techniques, metrics, data sets and performance validation measures used by researchers.

The study revealed the need for integrating the four dimensions of defect management and studying its effect on software performance. This integrated approach can lead to optimal use of resources in software development process.

There are many dimensions in defect management studies. The authors have considered only vital few based on the practical experiences of software engineers. Most of the research work cited in this review used public data repositories to validate their methodology and there is a need to apply these research methods on real datasets from industry to realize the actual potential of these techniques.

The authors believe that this paper provides a comprehensive insight into the various aspects of state-of-the-art research in software defect management. The authors feel that this is the only research article that delves into the four facets namely software defect analysis, software quality, software reliability and software development cost/effort.

A cost estimate is considered to have a high impact on software project success. Because of this, different methodologies for creating an accurate estimate have been studied over decades. Many methodologies produce accurate results, when used properly. However, software projects still suffer from inaccurate estimates. The disparity may result from organisational hindrances. This paper focuses on top management support (TMS) for software cost estimation (SCE). The purpose of this paper is to identify current practices and attitudes of top management involvement in SCE, and to analyse the relationship between these two and project success.

A list of 16 TMS practices for SCE has been developed. A survey was conducted to capture the frequency of use and the experienced importance of support practices. Data has been collected from 114 software professionals in Finland. Correlations between the frequency of use, attitudes and project success were analysed.

Top management invests a significant amount of attention in SCE. The extent of use and experienced importance do not correlate strongly with each other or project success.

The results may lack generalisability. Researchers are encouraged to validate the results with further studies.

Software professionals invite senior managers to participate in SCE. A list of practices for participating is provided.

This paper suggests a list of 16 TMS practices for SCE. The paper also reports on the extent of use and experienced importance of practices, and the correlations between these two and project success.

Quantity Takeoff (QTO) is an integral part of the decision-making process. Currently, QTO is mostly done using manual or 2D method, and practitioners are considering the use of BIM quantity takeoff as an effective alternative to the traditional 2D software takeoff. However, the existing literature does not have adequate studies to confirm that the use of BIM-based QTO is better than the 2D method. Therefore, this paper aims to expand and improve the existing literature into a more detailed analysis of each element to investigate that BIM is indeed a better option of the two QTO methods.

A total of 19 factors in four broad categories, i.e. timely decision making, accuracy, collaboration, and level of details were identified to draw a significant comparison between the two procedures, i.e. BIM-based quantity takeoff and traditional 2D takeoff. Surveys and case study are used to collect data for analysis to achieve the research goals.

The questionnaire survey showed that using BIM for the QTO process has significant benefits in achieving higher productivity on takeoff, accuracy, clarity and collaboration among the team members. The case study results also showed improvement in BIM-based QTO by achieving higher accuracy and productivity.

Understanding the difference between the two QTO processes is a challenging task; therefore, this paper contributes to drawing a comparison line between the two processes by introducing the factors that affect the QTO process.

Identifies the magnitude and importance of the level of software development costs in a modern high‐technology manufacturing environment. Analyses the variety of cost control practices as evidenced in the English‐language journals. Develops a holistic feed‐forward control model using the Japanese management accounting technique of target costing. Examines the relevance of each technique in relation to its most cost‐effective role and predicts that target costing will be widely adopted in the near future.

The aim of this paper is to make an attempt to find good values of onsite–offshore team strength; number of hours of communication between business users and onsite team and between onsite and offshore team to reduce cost and improve schedule for re-engineering projects in global software development environment.

The system dynamics technique is used for simulation model construction and policy run experimentation. The experts from Indian software outsourcing industry were consulted for model construction, validation and analysis of policy run results in both co-located and distributed software development environment.

The study results show that there is a drop in the overall team productivity in outsourcing environment by considering the offshore options. But the project cost can be reduced by employing the offshore team for coding and testing work only with minimal training for imparting business knowledge. The research results show that there is a potential to save project cost by being flexible in project schedule.

The study found that there could be substantial cost saving for re-engineering projects with a loss of project schedule when an appropriate onsite–offshore combination is used. The quality and productivity drop, however, were rather small for such combinations. The cost savings are high when re-engineering work is sent to offshore location entirely after completion of requirement analysis work at onsite location and providing training to offshore team in business knowledge The research findings show that there is potential to make large cost savings by being flexible in project schedule for re-engineering projects.

The software project manager can use the model results to divide the software team between onsite and offshore location during various phases of software development in distributed environment.

The study is novel as there is little attempt at finding the team distribution between onsite and offshore location in global software development environment.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model of the 24‐h software development process to help software project managers assess the profitability of a 24‐h development configuration and to select the optimal partnering sites. The model also helps the customer‐support divisions of software firms to decide which customer requests need to be performed using the 24‐h development mode.

This paper presents a graphical representation of the 24‐h software development process. Highlighting the importance of interaction times between two sites and the role of product‐, process‐, and site‐related factors that influence its value, the paper adopts the method of pair‐wise comparison of factors as done in the case of analytical hierarchy process and proposes a multiplicative model for its estimation. The software development time and cost are thereafter estimated by using site‐specific values of work hours, compensation package, and productivity. The approach is used to determine the economic viability of 24‐h development and make optimum site selection for a number of decision‐making situations.

The results obtained from applying the models to hypothetical, but realistic problems, with different values for site‐ and personnel‐specific factors to prove the ability of the model to be used in real‐life situations.

The proposed model does not consider effects of factors like multiple interactions, reworks, and errors in communication.

A circular representation of the 24‐h software development process, the multiplicative model for estimating the length of interaction time, and the time and cost of development in such a process are the main contributions of the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of knowledge management (KM) principles and technologies to improve the outcomes of software acquisition projects. Software acquisition organizations typically contract‐out their software projects to reduce the risks associated with developing the software internally and to control their cost.

This paper is based on a study of contracted software projects. Research results by the authors emphasize the need for institutionalizing processes for the collection of data about contracting costs within an organization so that databases of metrics about completed projects can be built and later used to forecast costs for future projects to improve the decision‐making processes about outsourcing.

A study of two‐dozen contracted projects indicates that such organizations face unique risks and hidden costs that are particular to software acquisitions. KM models, practices, and tools are potentially valuable for improving software outsourcing activities.

KM can be useful for identifying the organizational structures, processes and informational technologies for measuring, collecting, and analyzing costs and risks incurred before, during and after the contract award. The same framework can also be used to collect data on the acquisition activities and processes such as writing requests for proposals, contractor evaluation and selection, predicting needed resources, and identifying risks. Such knowledge can be used on future projects to improve the acquisition processes by allocating adequate resources and identifying risks to improve the likelihood of project success.