2004 Australian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC'04)
The Challenge of Introducing a New Software Cost Estimation Technology into a Small Software Organisation
Melbourne, Australia
April 13-April 16
ISBN: 0-7695-2089-8
Fostering innovation is the key to survival in today's IT business and is exemplified by introducing new technologies and methods to improve the development processes. This paper presents a follow-up case study of technology transfer in a small software organisation. A new software estimation technique, Web-CoBRA was introduced to a small software company to improve their software estimation process. Web-CoBRA was considerably more accurate than the company's current estimation process. However, despite management being aware of this improvement, the company has not fully adopted the new method. We used interviews and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire to assess the extent to which Web-CoBRA was used by the company. We found take-up of part of the Web-CoBRA technology but the full technology and the support tools were not used. We identify the reasons for the failure to adopt the Web-CoBRA technology and identify several areas for improving technology transfer activities.
Index Terms:
Software Cost Estimation, Software Engineering, Technology Transition, Web Development
Citation:
Jacky Keung, Ross Jeffery, Barbara Kitchenham, "The Challenge of Introducing a New Software Cost Estimation Technology into a Small Software Organisation," aswec, pp.52, 2004 Australian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC'04), 2004