Analogy-Based Estimation (ABE) is a popular method for non-algorithmic estimation due to its simplicity and effectiveness. The Analogy-Based Estimation (ABE) model was proposed by researchers, however, no optimal approach for reliable estimation was developed. Achieving high accuracy in the ABE might be challenging for new software projects that differ from previous initiatives. This study (conducted in June 2024) proposes a Firefly Algorithm-guided Analogy-Based Estimation (FAABE) model that combines FA with ABE to improve estimation accuracy. The FAABE model was tested on five publicly accessible datasets: Cocomo81, Desharnais, China, Albrecht, Kemerer and Maxwell. To improve prediction efficiency, feature selection was used. The results were measured using a variety of evaluation metrics; various error measures include MMRE, MAE, MSE, and RMSE. Compared to conventional models, the experimental results show notable increases in prediction precision, demonstrating the efficacy of the Firefly-Analogy ensemble.

-- Software development effort estimation is one of the most critical aspect in software development process, as the success or failure of the entire project depends on the accuracy of estimations. Researchers are still conducting studies on agile effort estimation. The aim of this research is to develop a story point based agile effort estimation model using LASSO and Elastic Net regression techniques. The experimental work is applied to the agile story point approach using 21 software projects collected from six firms. The two algorithms are trained using their default parameters and tuned grid search with 5 - fold cross - validation to get an enhanced model. The experiment result shows LASSO regressio n achieved better predictive performance PRED (8%) and PRED (25%) results of 100.0, The results are also compared with other related literature.

Of the 1,104 papers initially retrieved, only ten met the IC. This process was conducted by the main author and subsequently reviewed by the other authors. Secondly, we applied backward and forward snowballing (via Google Scholar) on each selected paper to identify additional relevant studies not captured by the initial Scopus search. This iterative process is illustrated in Figure 2. Through snowballing, we identified 17 additional papers, bringing the total number of selected studies to 27. In total, we screened over 2,400 papers across the Scopus search and snowballing iterations. D. Data Extraction and Classification Scheme The Data Extraction and Classification Scheme for each paper is outlined in Table II. The selection process and the extracted data are documented in our online Zenodo repository, which includes information on each identified paper, the reason for its inclusion or exclusion, and the data extracted to answer each RQ.

This paper presents an extensive study on the application of AI techniques for software effort estimation in the past five years from 2017 to 2023. By overcoming the limitations of traditional methods, the study aims to improve accuracy and reliability. Through performance evaluation and comparison with diverse Machine Learning models, including Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Linear Regression, Random Forest and other techniques, the most effective method is identified. The proposed AI-based framework holds the potential to enhance project planning and resource allocation, contributing to the research area of software project effort estimation.

An increasing number of software companies have already realized the importance of storing project-related data as valuable sources of information for training prediction models. Such kind of modeling opens the door for the implementation of tailored strategies to increase the accuracy in effort estimation of whole teams of engineers. In this article we review the most recent machine learning approaches used to estimate software development efforts for both, non-agile and agile methodologies. We analyze the benefits of adopting an agile methodology in terms of effort estimation possibilities, such as the modeling of programming patterns and misestimation patterns by individual engineers. We conclude with an analysis of current and future trends, regarding software effort estimation through data-driven predictive models.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used to advance different fields, such as education, healthcare, and finance. However, the application of AI in the field of project management (PM) has not progressed equally. This paper reports on a systematic review of the published studies used to investigate the application of AI in PM. This systematic review identified relevant papers using Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases. Of the 652 articles found, 58 met the predefined criteria and were included in the review. Included papers were classified per the following dimensions: PM knowledge areas, PM processes, and AI techniques. The results indicated that the application of AI in PM was in its early stages and AI models have not applied for multiple PM processes especially in processes groups of project stakeholder management, project procurements management, and project communication management. However, the most popular PM processes among included papers were project effort prediction and cost estimation, and the most popular AI techniques were support vector machines, neural networks, and genetic algorithms.

Microsoft is using AI to accelerate pull requests -- the feature that lets developers tell others about changes they've made to code -- toward completion by reminding authors to engage with their overdue requests. That's according to a new whitepaper published this week detailing Nudge, an end-to-end service that leverages models based on effort estimation to predict the completion time for a given pull request. Microsoft says that Nudge has been deployed on 147 of its internal repositories since 2019 and that it's "significantly" reduced completion time for 60% for the 8,500 pull requests for which it sent notifications. With the adoption of platforms like GitHub and GitLab, pull requests have become the standard mechanism for distributed code reviews. They enable changes to be reviewed by one or more developers and even bots; once the reviewers have signed off, the changes can be merged with the main branch and deployed.

As demand for computer software continually increases, software scope and complexity become higher than ever. The software industry is in real need of accurate estimates of the project under development. Software development effort estimation is one of the main processes in software project management. However, overestimation and underestimation may cause the software industry loses. This study determines which technique has better effort prediction accuracy and propose combined techniques that could provide better estimates. Eight different ensemble models to estimate effort with Ensemble Models were compared with each other base on the predictive accuracy on the Mean Absolute Residual (MAR) criterion and statistical tests. The results have indicated that the proposed ensemble models, besides delivering high efficiency in contrast to its counterparts, and produces the best responses for software project effort estimation. Therefore, the proposed ensemble models in this study will help the project managers working with development quality software.

Software development effort estimation is considered a fundamental task for software development life cycle as well as for managing project cost, time and quality. Therefore, accurate estimation is a substantial factor in projects success and reducing the risks. In recent years, software effort estimation has received a considerable amount of attention from researchers and became a challenge for software industry. In the last two decades, many researchers and practitioners proposed statistical and machine learning-based models for software effort estimation. In this work, Firefly Algorithm is proposed as a metaheuristic optimization method for optimizing the parameters of three COCOMO-based models. These models include the basic COCOMO model and other two models proposed in the literature as extensions of the basic COCOMO model. The developed estimation models are evaluated using different evaluation metrics. Experimental results show high accuracy and significant error minimization of Firefly Algorithm over other metaheuristic optimization algorithms including Genetic Algorithms and Particle Swarm Optimization.

Abstract-- It is well recognized that the project productivity is a key driver in estimating software project effort from Use Case Point size metric at early software development stages. Although, there are few proposed models for predicting productivity, there is no consistent conclusion regarding which model is the superior. Therefore, instead of building a new productivity prediction model, this paper presents a new ensemble construction mechanism applied for software project productivity prediction. Ensemble is an effective technique when performance of base models is poor. We proposed a weighted mean method to aggregate predicted productivities based on average of errors produced by training model. The obtained results show that the using ensemble is a good alternative approach when accuracies of base models are not consistently accurate over different datasets, and when models behave diversely.