Software project planning for robustness and completion time in the presence of uncertainty using multi objective search based software engineering

ABSTRACT

All large-scale projects contain a degree of risk and uncertainty. Software projects are particularly vulnerable to overruns, due to the this uncertainty and the inherent difficulty of software project cost estimation. In this paper we introduce a search based approach to software project robustness. The approach is to formulate this problem as a multi objective Search Based Software Engineering problem, in which robustness and completion time are treated as two competing objectives. The paper presents the results of the application of this new approach to four large real-world software projects, using two different models of uncertainty.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Time estimation

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation, Management

Keywords:
pareto optimality, project planning, software engineering management