COST CONSTRUCTIVE MODEL

Cocomo (Constructive Cost Model) is a regression model based on LOC, i.e number of Lines of
Code. It is a procedural cost estimate model for software projects and is often used as a process of
reliably predicting the various parameters associated with making a project such as size, effort, cost,
time, and quality. It was proposed by Barry Boehm in 1981 and is based on the study of 63 projects,
which makes it one of the best-documented models. The key parameters which define the quality of
any software products, which are also an outcome of the Cocomo are primarily Effort & Schedule:
 Effort: Amount of labor that will be required to complete a task. It is measured in pers on-months
units.
 Schedule: Simply means the amount of time required for the completion of the job, which is, of
course, proportional to the effort put in. It is measured in the units of time such as weeks, months.

This model of estimation is used for different types of Projects that are basically dived by Barry
Boehm.Boehm’s definition of organic, semidetached, and embedded systems are

1. Organic – A software project is said to be an organic type if the team size required is
adequately small, the problem is well understood and has been solved in the past and also the
team members have a nominal experience regarding the problem.
2. Semi-detached – A software project is said to be a Semi-detached type if the vital
characteristics such as team size, experience, knowledge of the various programming
environment lie in between that of organic and Embedded. The projects classified as Semi -
Detached are comparatively less familiar and difficult to develop compared to the organic ones
and require more experience and better guidance and creativity. Eg: Compilers or different
Embedded Systems can be considered of Semi-Detached type.

3. Embedded – A software project requiring the highest level of complexity, creativity, and
experience requirement fall under this category. Such software requires a larger team size than
the other two models and also the developers need to be sufficiently experienced and creative
to develop such complex models..

There are three types of models which are applied to different types of projects

1. Basic COCOMO
2. Intermediate COCOMO
3. Detailed COCOMO

1. Basic COCOMO :
These are basic formulae which are needed to be applied for calculating
effort and time schedule

E(Effort)= a(KLOC)b
Time = c(Effort)d
Person Required = Effort/Time

The formula is used for the cost estimation of for the basic COCOMO model, and also is used in the
subsequent models. The constant values a,b,c and d for the Basic Model for the different categories
of system:
Software Projects a B c d

Organic 2.4 1.05 2.5 0.38

Semi Detached 3.0 1.12 2.5 0.35

Embedded 3.6 1.20 2.5 0.32

The effort is measured in Person-Months and as evident from the formula is dependent on Kilo-Lines of
code. The development time is measured in months. These formulas are used as such in the Basic
Model calculations, as not much consideration of different factors such as reliability, expertise is taken
into account, henceforth the estimate is rough.

2. Intermediate COCOMO:
The basic Cocomo model assumes that the effort is only a
function of the number of lines of code and some constants evaluated according to the different
software systems. However, in reality, no system’s effort and schedule can be solely calculated on the
basis of Lines of Code. For that, various other factors such as reliability, experience, Capability. These
factors are known as Cost Drivers and the Intermediate Model utilizes 15 such drivers for cost
estimation. Classification of Cost Drivers and their attributes are:
 Required software reliability extent
 Size of the application database
 The complexity of the product
 Run-time performance constraints
 Memory constraints
 The volatility of the virtual machine environment
 Required turnabout time
 Analyst capability
 Software engineering capability
 Applications experience
 Virtual machine experience
 Programming language experience
 Use of software tools
 Application of software engineering methods
 Required development schedule

3. Detailed COCOMO:
Detailed COCOMO incorporates all characteristics of the intermediate version
with an assessment of the cost driver’s impact on each step of the software engineering process. The
detailed model uses different effort multipliers for each cost driver attribute. In detailed cocomo, the
whole software is divided into different modules and then we apply COCOMO in different modules to
estimate effort and then sum the effort. The Six phases of detailed COCOMO are:

1. Planning and requirements

2. System design
3. Detailed design
4. Module code and test
5. Integration and test
6. Cost Constructive model

COCOMO-II is the revised version of the original COCOMO (Constructive Cost

Model) and is developed at University of Southern California. It is the model that
allows one to estimate the cost, effort and schedule when planning a new software
development activity.

It consists of three sub-models:

1. End User Programming:
Application generators are used in this sub-model. End user write the code
by using these application generators.
Example – Spreadsheets, report generator, etc.
2. Intermediate Sector :
(a). Application Generators and Composition Aids –
This category will create largely prepackaged capabilities for user
programming. Their product will have many reusable components. Typical
firms operating in this sector are Microsoft, Lotus,Oracle, IBM, Borland,
Novell.
(b). Application Composition Sector –
This category is too diversified and to be handled by prepackaged solutions.
It includes GUI, Databases, domain specific components such as financial,
medical or industrial process control packages .
(c). System Integration –
This category deals with large scale and highly embedded systems.

3. Infrastructure Sector:
This category provides infrastructure for the software development like
Operating System, Database Management System, User Interface
Management System, Networking System, etc..

Stages of COCOMO II

1. Stage-I:
It supports estimation of prototyping. For this it uses Application Composition
Estimation Model. This model is used for the prototyping stage of application
generator and system integration.
2. Stage-II:
It supports estimation in the early design stage of the project, when we less
 know about it. For this it uses Early Design Estimation Model. This model is
used in early design stage of application generators, infrastructure, system
integration.
3. Stage-III:
It supports estimation in the post architecture stage of a project. For this it
uses Post Architecture Estimation Model. This model is used after the
completion of the detailed architecture of application generator, infrastructure,
system integration.

Difference between COCOMOI and COCOMO II

COCOMO I is useful in the waterfall COCOMO II is useful in non-sequential,

models of the software development rapid development and reuse models of
cycle. software.

It provides estimates that represent one

It provides estimates of effort and standard deviation around the most likely
schedule. estimate.

This model is based upon the linear This model is based upon the non linear
reuse formula. reuse formula

This model is also based upon the This model is also based upon reuse model
assumption of reasonably stable which looks at effort needed to understand
requirements. and estimate.

Effort equation’s exponent is

determined by 3 development Effort equation’s exponent is determined by
modes. 5 scale factors.

Development begins with the

requirements assigned to the
software. It follows a spiral type of development.

Number of submodels in COCOMO I is In COCOMO II, Number of submodel are

3 and 15 cost drivers are assigned 4 and 17 cost drivers are assigned

Size of software stated in terms of Size of software stated in terms of Object

Lines of code points, function points and lines of code