Suppose we have a software development team and we know that its monthly cost is 19,800 US Dollars (USD).
To determine this cost, we must consider the number of people, what is the remuneration of each role, for example, developer, test analyst, designer, project leader, etc. In addition, we must consider other personnel expenses such as year-end benefits, insurance, and also the administrative cost of each person, for example, the infrastructure where they work, management and administration expenses, among others.
If we are doing this project for a third party and we are preparing the cost estimate for a software project, we also have to add the profit margin that we expect to obtain.
Determine cost per unit of measure
To determine how much it counts to develop each function point, the following formula is used:
Cost per function point = Monthly cost of the work team / function points of the month
Going back to our example:
Cost per Feature Point = $19,800 / 23 Feature Points = $860.87 / Feature Point
Example of cost estimation of a software project
Once we have the measurement of the size of the software and the cost per unit of measurement, we can determine the cost of the software project using the following formula:
Cost of a software project = Software size x Cost per function point.
In our example of cost estimation of a software project we determine it as follows:
Software project cost = 19 CFP x 860.87 USD
Software project cost = $16,356.53
How long will the software development project last?
COSMIC function points can also be used to determine how long the software project will last.