Software cost estimation inhibitors—a case study in automotive context

As cost estimation is an important yet problematic part of project planning there is a need of process improvement to decrease the estimation errors. This paper has two purposes. Based on a qualitative case study conducted at a Swedish automotive company it describes the process of cost estimation in a real-life setting focusing on inhibitors to accurate cost estimates. Second, the results of this study are compared with four other studies with a similar purpose of concluding that a company-specific investigation of cost estimation inhibitors might give more actionable input to the activity of cost estimation process improvement than a more general investigation