Estimation By Analogy

The basic idea of Estimation by Analogy is to create accurate estimates for new projects by comparing the new project to similar projects from the past.

Description

Basically estimation by analogy is to describe the project for which the estimation has to be created and afterwards compare the description with completed projects. The goal is to utilize the known effort of the completed projects for an estimate for the new project.Before starting with estimation by analogy you have to determine how a project can be described, like type of application domain, number of inputs and number of screens. You have to be sure that at least one variable can act as a size driver (see also Section [Count]}.
The most important decision to make when estimating by analogy is to determine similarity and how the known effort values are used to make estimations for a new project.

Example

Measuring Analogy is often done by tools. There are numerous tools available to track project data. The Analogy Software Tool (ANGEL) is a tool to automate the analogy measurement process. The prototype determines the optimum combination of variables for finding analogies. It uses templates to record project data which can be configured for the data collection of an organization. It keeps track of the project status and actual effort.
After a couple of projects have been added it is possible to select a set of variables that will be used to find analogies. ANGEL determines the best combination of variables.