Early effort estimation by AHP: A case study of project metrics in small organizations

Project effort estimation in the early phase of software development is a significant activity for every software organization to improve the development process. Small organizations need some simple and easily used method to estimate effort because of insufficient resources including human and finance. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which integrates qualitative and subjective approach with quantitative and objective approach, can meet the need of small organizations. We use the data of three real projects to demonstrate the application of AHP for early project effort estimation. By the analysis of the estimation results, we point that AHP can not only predict the project effort in the early phase of development, but also help managers to find the principal factors that contribute to the project effort in their organizations. In summary, AHP is appropriate for early project effort estimation in a small organization.