Preliminary results from a case study of effort estimation for net-centric applications at the undergraduate level

Presents preliminary results from an ongoing case study of effort estimation for net-centric applications in an undergraduate software engineering class. For two consecutive course offerings, students' effort estimates were tracked against the same project: modifying a Web-site log analyzer program. The question was to see if the application domain of net-centric computing is qualitatively different, quantitatively different, or both, from "regular" software applications. In both classes, the effort estimates produced by the students were quite erratic, a finding that might be traced, in part, to inadequate requirements engineering, to the novelty of the application domain and to the students' inexperience. The study is of interest in part due to the novelty of net-centric applications, which are representative of the sort of modern software system that the students will likely work on when they enter the workforce.