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A Software Architecture Cost Estimation Method to Support Architecture Evaluation with Consideration of Cost  

Choue, Si-Ho (서강대학교 컴퓨터공학과)
Lee, Jun-Ha (서강대학교 컴퓨터공학과)
Park, Soo-Yong (서강대학교 컴퓨터공학과)
Publication Information
Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications / v.37, no.2, 2010 , pp. 95-103 More about this Journal
Abstract
Improving the competitiveness of software products in the market involves procuring the means to design software architecture that deliver qualities necessitated by stakeholder requirements within allocated budget, thereby improving the cost-effectiveness of the end product. Currently, software architecture evaluation methods are used to predict and review qualities inherent in software architecture designs and to choose a candidate architecture that delivers desired qualities. Existing software architecture evaluation methods, however, fail to address the cost considerations dependent on the architecture chosen for product implementation. In this paper we suggest a cost estimation method for software architecture which adapts the cost drivers in the software cost estimation model COCOMO II to support cost estimation during architecture evaluation. The suggested method can be performed in coordination with existing software architecture evaluation efforts and supplements existing architecture evaluation techniques with guidelines for identifying and evaluating cost drivers in candidate software architectures without incurring extra overhead. The accuracy of the cost estimation using the suggested method is verified through application of the method to the architecture candidates used in RPS (Robot Patrol System), a surveillance embedded system.
Keywords
Architecture evaluation; architecture cost estimation; architecture selection;
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