Constructive Cost Model

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What Does Constructive Cost Model Mean?

The Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) is a procedural cost estimate model for software projects that was created by Barry Boehm in the 1970s. It has been commonly used to project costs for a variety of projects and business processes.

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Techopedia Explains Constructive Cost Model

The COCOMO model is partially based on evaluating projects by size or lines of code. In addition, there are various other attributes or metrics that apply to estimates, including product attributes, personnel attributes, hardware attributes and general project attributes. In general, engineers may look at phenomena and factors like roughsizing, make or buy models, or detail planning to put together a COCOMO estimate.

There are also different "flavors" of COCOMO in use for business estimates. For example, in a model known as "detailed COCOMO," a step-by-step process includes attention to planning and requirements, system design, detail design, module code and testing, integration and testing, and estimation. In general, COCOMO provides a helpful framework to try to determine the cost and scope of a software project.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.