Individual Project Estimation

Historically, estimation methods have focused on effort at the team level. Recent agile software development practices have shed light on taking individuals – who are acting as part of a team—into consideration. A lot of software – mobile device apps, services, components – is now written by one-person teams, thus demonstrating the need for engineering discipline at the individual level. Emerging trends in software development for mobile devices suggest effort estimation methods can be employed for one-person endeavors and those methods can benefit teams, but those methods are still very much in their infancy. This paper examines project effort estimation from the one-person team perspective and describes a lightweight effort estimation technique.