Revisiting Software Project Effort versus Duration Trade-offs: A Comment on a Proposed Process

In "Exploring Software Project Effort versus Duration Trade-offs" (IEEE Software, July/Aug. 2012, pp. 67-74), Charles Symons proposed a process for exploring the trade-off between project duration and effort. However, the author of this comment argues that the process he described incorrectly estimates the strength of the relationship, finding a problem with the derivation. A Monte Carlo simulation demonstrates that the proposed process yields an incorrect result. A Web extra describes the mathematical results that showed this.