以智慧型代理人為基礎的知識庫系統在軟體專案成本估計與控制之應用

軟體成本估計與控制是軟體專案管理的一項重要課題，但是軟體成本估計與控制的工作，例如成本估計模式的選擇、成本相關資訊的搜集和計算、重要的成本管理之決策以及專案人員之間的溝通和協調等是一項相當耗費人力的工作。近年來，許多大型軟體專案已朝向在Web的作業環境下執行，明顯的增加軟體成本估計與控制的困難度。有鑑於此，本研究建立一個軟體專案成本估計與控制之應用模式並發展一套知識庫系統以協助軟體成本估計作業的進行，同時，本研究發展之知識庫系統也結合監控、量測、決策和訊息通知等四種代理人程式協助軟體專案控制作業的進行，不僅能夠有效的解決大型軟體專案成本控制的問題，而且能夠全面提升上述作業的效率與品質以及降低軟體開發成本。本研究係以國內某鋼鐵公司之研發部門所進行的大型軟體專案計劃作為實證研究的對象，據以了解以智慧型代理人為基礎之知識庫系統在實務應用方面的可行性及實用性，為評估本研究發展的知識庫系統所帶來的效益，針對小型、中型與大型等三個不同規模之專案，分別進行模擬分析，根據模擬分析的結果，本研究發現當專案規模越大及專案開發人員愈多時，節省的工作量和時間也愈多。換言之，以智慧型代理人為基礎的知識庫系統不僅能夠有效的解決軟體專案之成本估計與控制問題，而且可以累積專案開發過程的經驗與知識，提升專案管理的績效。

關鍵字

軟體成本估計；軟體成本控制；智慧型代理人；知識庫系統

並列摘要

Cost estimation and control is a key issue in software project management. However, it is a labor-intensive task in managing the software project cost estimation. Recently implementation of a large-scale software project has been shifted to the Internet environment, thus cost estimation and control of a software project becomes a challenging task for a software project manager. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a model of software cost estimation and control. A rule-based knowledge system combined with four types of agents including monitor agent, measurement agent, decision making agent, and notify agent is developed to facilitate a project manager in project control on the Internet environment. To investigate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed model, a case study is conducted in a research and development of a large-scale steel company. To examine the performance of the proposed knowledge base system, a simulation analysis using the cases of small, medium and large-scale software project teams is implemented. Research findings show that the effort on the software project control can be dramatically reduced when the project size is very large. In other words, an intelligent agent-based knowledge base system not only solves the problems effectively in software cost estimation and control, experiences and knowledge in software development process can also be accumulated and the performance of software project management is improved.

並列關鍵字

Software Cost Estimation ； Software Cost Control ； Intelligent Agent ； Knowledge Base System

參考文獻

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