Modern Empirical Cost and Schedule Estimation Tools

Cost models were derived from the collection and analysis of large collections of project data. Modelers would fit a curve to the data and analyze those parameters that affected the curve. Early models applied to custom-developed software systems. New software development philosophies and technologies have emerged in the 1980s and 1990s to reduce development costs and improve quality of software products.
These new approaches frequently involve the use of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software, software reuse, application generators, and fourth generation languages. The purpose of this paper is to identify, discuss, compare and contrast software cost estimating models and tools that address these modern philosophies.