Software Cost Estimation in Global Software Development Business: A Review of Models and Cost Drivers for Economical Business

Abstract

Global Software Development (GSD) has grown in popularity as important tool for ensuring the efficient use of resources in internationally distributed environments across multiple geographical locations for business. The most prominent features of GSD are lowering costs, speeding up growth, and gaining access to talented developers all over the world. However, there are a number of drawbacks that result from the distance between development teams including coordination and communication causing the hidden business costs involved in development process. In the context of GSD, it is necessary to focus on economic cost estimation models as estimating the needed resources and effort remains a difficult task. Software cost estimation has become a critical factor in determining software development effectiveness economically. There are many cost estimating models, including algorithmic, non-algorithmic, and hybrid for business development environment. Over the last decade, several studies have focused on economic cost estimate in GSD. To the best of our understanding, current cost estimation techniques/models do not take into account all the additional business cost drivers that are necessary to calculate accurate cost estimation in the GSD context. In this paper we present a comparative analysis of economic software cost estimation techniques along with cost divers used in GSD context. This paper summarizes the additional cost drivers in GSD and discusses open research topics in economic cost estimation in GSD based on the results review of the associated literature.