Cost Estimation Approach for Scrum Agile Software Process Model

The software development in the industry is moving towards agile due to the advantages provided by the agile development process. Main advantages of agile software development process are: delivering high quality software in shorter intervals and embracing change. Testing is a vital activity in software development process model, for delivering a high quality software product. Often testing accounts for more project effort and time than any other software development activities. The software testing cost estimation is one of the most important managerial activities related to resource allocation, project planning and to control overall cost of the software development. Several models have been proposed by various authors to address the issue of effort and cost estimation. Most of the models are directly or indirectly depend on the source code of the software product. But, majority of the testing in software organizations is done in black-box environment, where the source code of the software is not available to the testing teams. In this paper, an alternative approach to software testing cost estimation for scrum agile software process model, by considering various testing activities involved in black-box testing environment is presented. The proposed approach is applied on four real world case studies and found that this approach provides more accurate estimation of the testing effort and cost, and helps the software managers in controlling the overrun of the project schedules and project costs