Skip to main content
Home / Failure and Lessons Learned in Information Technology Management, Volume 2, Number 2

Applying COCOMO as a Cost Model for Knowledge-Based Systems

Buy Article:

$30.00 + tax (Refund Policy)

The COCOMO approach to software cost modeling has been improved and refined for 15 years. It is currently being updated to encompass newer approaches to software development (e.g., rapid application development, reuse-driven approaches, object-oriented), though the focus remains on conventional (i.e., algorithm-based) systems. In this article we propose a cost estimation technique for Knowledge-Based Systems (KBSs) based on COCOMO 2.0. Our definitions were developed for a broad range of KBSs. Specifically, our definitions consider rule-based systems, considered the most prevalent form of KBSs, as well as KBSs based upon object-oriented or hybrid knowledge representations. Our definitions provide a starting point for the application of the COCOMO approach to cost modeling to KBSs. Further research will be needed to develop empirically based multipliers to complete the cost estimate and test the effectiveness of this approach.

Keywords: COMPLEXITY; COST MODELING; KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 June 1998

More about this publication?
  • Most people learn more from failures than from successes. In information technology management, many lessons have been learned over the years "the hard way" through failed implementations, poor management practices, technology limitations, and the like. Failure & Lessons Learned in Information Technology Management is devoted to addressing failures of and lessons learned from information technology projects in business, universities, government, and the military that did not succeed due to technology, management, organizational, social, cultural, and other issues. The goal is to learn from these cases and understand the basis of decisions made in order to not recreate the same mistakes or "reinvent the wheel." The organizational names in the articles can be protected by using pseudonyms.

Share Content

  • Access Key
  • Free content
  • Partial Free content
  • New content
  • Open access content
  • Partial Open access content
  • Subscribed content
  • Partial Subscribed content
  • Free trial content