Ans. Software project planning entails the following activities:
• Estimation:
o –Effort, cost, resource, and project duration
• Project scheduling:
• Staff organization:
o –staffing plans
• Risk handling:
o -identification, analysis, and abatement procedures
• Miscellaneous plans:
o –quality assurance plan, configuration management plan, etc.
Software costs are due to the requirement for software, hardware and human resources. One can perform cost estimation at any point in the software life cycle.
As the cost of software depends on the nature and characteristics of the project, the accuracy of estimate will depend on the amount of reliable information we have about the final product. So when the product is delivered, the costs can be actually determined as everything spend is known by then. However when the software is being initiated or during feasible study, we have only some idea about the functionality of software. There is very high uncertainty about the actual specifications of the system hence cost estimations based on uncertain information cannot be accurate.