PTP-vision: A proxy-based personal software test effort estimation method for banking applications

Abstract

In this study, a new method called PTP-Vision was developed to support the software project managers of a private local bank in estimating the required functional test effort/duration of the developed software units. This method allows the project manager to predict the required test run effort (hence duration) of a test analyst for an assigned software unit at the initial test stages. On the basis, the test analyst models and measures her personal test process (PTP) as described in Humphrey's Personal Software Process (or PSP) and generate a personal estimation database by analyzing these measurements. For the development and testing of this method, real data from the bank's software development projects were used. The feasibility and sensitivity of the developed method were evaluated by comparing the estimations made at the earlier stages of the test process with the actual values of test effort. It has been found that if certain parameters related to environment and application remain stable, prediction errors do not exceed 12% band, and in most cases much smaller.