Abstract:
Software cost today, represents a significant percentage of computing systems. Inadequate
monitoring and evaluation of software development, operations and maintenance could lead to
very high cost, failure of projects to meet the targeted or scheduled time, production of low
quality software and poor user satisfaction among others. Monitoring and evaluation of software
development, operations and maintenance are fraught with a lot of problems among which, is
the determination of the appropriate measures of cost, duration, quality and benefits. Unlike in
the case of hardware where most of these metrics could be measured directly, most of the
metrics associated with software development, operations and maintenance are intangible, that
is, they could not be measured directly. This situation probably explains why there has been
little efforts at standardising the monitoring and evaluation of software development, operations
and maintenance.
In this study, we adopt the use of Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and
the Critical Path Method (CPM) for the estimation of software schedule and cost. The use of
PERT/CPM enables us to determine the boundary times like earliest start, latest start, earliest
completion, latest completion, total float and free float as well as the critical path of the software
life cycle. Piecewise cost-duration curve was used to determine the cost of schedule. McCall's
software quality factors and quality metrics are used to derive the data used for software quality
performance evaluation. A a software package christened CASMESDOM for monitoring and
. evaluating the three major phases of software life cycle is developed and implemented in
Paradox Relational Database Management System environment. CASMESDOM is menu-driven,
user friendly, interactive and intelligent. In CASMESDOM, the practical use of PERT/CPM and
the McCall's quality metrics in the estimation of software metrics was demonstrated using the
Federal University of Technology; Akure (FUTA) Payroll System.
