Personnel Attributes

These are attributes of your project team members.

Attribute	Description
Analyst Capability	The percentile ranking of the analyst's aptitude
Software Engineer Capability	The percentile ranking of the programmer's aptitude
Application Experience	The number of years the staff has gained background knowledge regarding the application
Programming Language Experience	The number of years of experience the staff has worked with the language
Virtual Machine Experience	The number of years of experience the staff has worked with the operating system and hardware

Project Attributes

These are attributes of your software development process for this project.

Attribute	Description
Use of Software Tools	The richness in features of the tools being used for development; tools can be very basic and require additional manual involvement or the tools can be quite comprehensive with automated design, documentation, and coding components
Application of SE Methods	The degree of commitment of the staff to using software engineering methods
Required Development Schedule	The significance of the project delivery date; A high rating means that early delivery is very desirable or needed

Effort Estimation via Rayleigh

Rayleigh is an effort estimation tool introduced by Lawrence H. Putnam. The Rayleigh approach separates projects into three separate phases: Feasibility Studies, Functional Design and Main Build. The Feasibility Studies phase outlines project specifications and plans; the Functional Design phase records functional design specifications, test plans, and management plants; the Main Build phase begins at the start of detail logic design and ends when the system is fully operational.

Putnam offers two equations for estimating software development effort and analyzing the effects of compressing or expanding the schedule. The software equation computes the development effort required and therefore the cost. The inputs to this equation are source lines of code (SLOC), time for development in years, special skills factor (B) and productivity measure (PM). The skills factor values and the productivity measure values are obtained from Tables 1 through 4 of the Putnam article, "Rayleigh Model," pp. 995-996. The Manpower Buildup Index Equation computes the manpower buildup index parameter which can be expressed in 6 different levels. The inputs for this equation are the effort computed from the software equation, size in SLOC, and the special skill factor. More information about the Manpower Buildup Index is located in theCOSMOS Technical Reference(see the Rayleigh Model).

Projects

The Project feature of COSMOS allows you to combine the Function Point (FP), the COCOMO, and the Rayleigh analysis of a project into one grouping. Projects allow you to mix and match different scenarios for your project. Using Projects, you can save project combinations for future reference.