Research on Improved Staged Software Cost Estimation Method Based on COCOMO Model

The accuracy of software cost estimation is essential for software development management. By introducing and analyzing the estimation methods of software cost systematically, the paper discussed the necessary of considering the software maintenance stage and estimating the software cost by separating the procedure of software development into several small stages. Then a staged software cost estimation method based on COCOMO model was proposed. The use of the new software cost estimation method proposed by this paper not only contributes to the cost control of software project, but also effectively avoids the bias problem due to using by single cost estimation method so that the accuracy of cost estimation could be improved.