System Analysis Ch.10

Regarding cost estimation in traditional vs. agile organizations, which of the following is NOT true: A. Both types of organizations may utilize T-shirt sizing of epic user stories. B. Both types of organizations may utilize planning poker of "regular" user stories. C. Both types of organizations may utilize function point analysis of detailed functional designs. D. All of the above are true. E. None of the above are true.

C. Both types of organizations may utilize function point analysis of detailed functional designs.

With respect to the precision of a software cost estimate: A. Precision refers to the exactness of an estimate. B. Precision refers to how close an estimate is to the actual value. C. Precision is a synonym for accuracy. D. Precision relates to construction projects, while accuracy relates to configuration projects. E. Precision relates to configuration projects, while accuracy relates to construction projects.

A. Precision refers to the exactness of an estimate.

The Planning Fallacy: A. Asserts that there is a systematic tendency to underestimate software costs. B. Asserts that there is a systematic tendency to underestimate software business benefits. C. Is an argument made by advocates of the agile approaches that traditional project planning tools and techniques are a waste of time for systems projects. D. Asserts that cost estimation is more difficult in agile projects, because of the use of emergent requirements. E. All of the above are true.

A. Asserts that there is a systematic tendency to underestimate software costs.

The IT team's ability to accurately estimate the cost of systems projects if fundamentally limited by: A. The level of requirements detail the team has defined. B. The duration of Year 0 requirements and construction tasks. C. Whether we are pursuing a configuration vs. a construction project. D. Whether we are utilizing internal developers vs. outside consultants. E. None of the above are true.

A. The level of requirements detail the team has defined.

Comparing unadjusted function points to adjusted function points: A. Adjusted function points have been adjusted for the complexity of each design element (i.e., program characteristic) B. Adjusted function points have been revised to account for non-design elements pertaining to impacts of people, process, and product. C. The only way to convert IFPUG (International Function Point User Group) unadjusted function point to adjusted function points is to utilize COCOMO II. D. Adjusted function points reduces the subjectivity of unadjusted function points. E. None of the above are true.

B. Adjusted function points have been revised to account for non-design elements pertaining to impacts of people, process, and product.

Comparing the cost estimation approach of expert judgment to planning poker, which of the following is NOT true: A. Both expert judgment and planning poker rely on the subjective judgment of the estimators based on their experience and expertise. B. Both expert judgment and planning poker rely on achieving consensus across all members of a development team. C. Expert judgment may be preferred over planning poker for large product backlogs and teams. D. Both expert judgment and planning poker may benefit from decomposing user stories to engineering tasks. E. Expert judgment may benefit from estimators considering and mathematically combining best case, most likely case, and worst case estimates.

B. Both expert judgment and planning poker rely on achieving consensus across all members of a development team.

With respect to software estimation using Ideal Days: A. Ideal Days is a plan-driven term that is synonymous with the agile term Story Points. B. Ideal Days refers to the time a user story or product backlog item should take to construct where the resources needed to do the work are immediately available with no other competing priorities or interruptions. C. Ideal days refers to a unitless measure of the relative size of a user story or product backlog item. D. Ideal days cannot be used to generate software cost estimate. E. None of the above are true.

B. Ideal Days refers to the time a user story or product backlog item should take to construct where the resources needed to do the work are immediately available with no other competing priorities or interruptions.

A fundamental divergence between traditional vs. agile organizations in software cost estimating is that: A. Only agile organizations utilize T-shirt sizing. B. Only agile organizations utilize planning poker. C. Only traditional organizations expand requirements based on BRUF, enabling highly accurate software estimates. D. Traditional organizations address software requirements via configuration of COTS software vs. agile organizations address software requirements via construction. E. All of the above are true.

C. Only traditional organizations expand requirements based on BRUF, enabling highly accurate software estimates.

In systems projects, Year 0 refers to: A. The Go Live date of the project, when new system features are deployed to business users and business benefits begin to be realized. B. The first year in which software benefits may be realized. C. The time ending in the Go Live date in which a project delivering new or enhanced software is executed, including requirements, construction, and deployment. D. The 12-month period prior to the Go Live date. E. None of the above are true.

C. The time ending in the Go Live date in which a project delivering new or enhanced software is executed, including requirements, construction, and deployment.

Regarding function point analysis, which of the following is NOT true: A. It is fundamentally different from subjective estimating techniques such as T-shirt sizing, planning poker, and expert judgment in that it relies on objective counting of design elements (as called "elementary processes" or "program characteristics"). B. It cannot be effectively used in agile approaches which utilize emergent requirements. C. To be of any use at all, the estimators must adjust each design element (i.e., program characteristic) for its complexity. D. The output of function point analysis is a standard amount of work in the form of a number of unadjusted function points. E. All of the above are true.

C. To be of any use at all, the estimators must adjust each design element (i.e., program characteristic) for its complexity.

Regarding software cost estimation, projects that are large in size: A. Tend to fail three to five times more frequently than small- and medium-size projects. B. Attract greater scrutiny from business stakeholders, including senior staff. C. Magnify the impacts of the Planning Fallacy. D. All of the above are true. E. None of the above are true.

D. All of the above are true.

With respect to tuning software estimation to the expectations of a specific software project: A. Agile organizations may place less emphasis up-front estimates, because they value high responsiveness to changing software requirements. B. Traditional organizations may emphasize highly accurate estimates, because they value highly predictable and low-risk creation of software capabilities. C. In general, it is a good idea to re-estimate project costs and benefits multiple times during a project, rather than only once at the beginning of the project. D. All of the above are true. E. None of the above are true.

D. All of the above are true.

Suppose a five-person team doing estimating via planning poker generates the following ideal day estimates for a given user story: 3, 34, 8, 8, 21. The likely next step for this team would be to: A. Average the estimates and round up, e.g. to 15 ideal days, then move on to the next user story. B. Omit the high and low values, then finalize the estimate as the rounded average value of the remaining values C. Average the values and then "pad" the estimate by 25%, e.g., average = ((74 days / 5) x 1.25 = 92 ideal days. D. Based on the wide difference in estimated values, discuss each team member's understanding of the requirements, then play additional "hands" of planning poker until consensus is reached. E. None of the above are true.

D. Based on the wide difference in estimated values, discuss each team member's understanding of the requirements, then play additional "hands" of planning poker until consensus is reached.

Which of the software cost-estimation methods has the next to lowest level of estimating accuracy: A. Unadjusted function point analysis B. T-shirt sizing C. COCOMO II D. Planning Poker

D. Planning Poker

Which of the following is NOT one of the general principles for improving cost and effort estimates: A. Segment (or decompose) work to combat the planning fallacy. B. Estimate fixed labor costs (like BAs and software testers) as fixed, different from labor costs like developers that are more dependent on the amount of development work to perform. C. Clarify scope using acceptance criteria. D. Utilize a single, initial estimate throughout the project. E. Clearly distinguish cost estimates from cost commitments, and progressively refine and evaluate estimates at each stage of the software project to avoid unrealistic commitments early in the project.

D. Utilize a single, initial estimate throughout the project.

Per the Systems Development Process Framework, teams should do cost estimation: A. During Initial Visioning. B. During Business Analysis. C. During Functional and Initial Technical Design. D. At multiple times during the project, along with re-estimating business benefits. E. All of the above are true.

E. All of the above are true.

Regarding key, overarching messages regarding software project timing and budget commitments: A. Ideally, the team should defer making a commitment until as late in the requirements process as possible. B. Ideally, the team should have completed functional requirements at least through user interface designs, reducing cost estimate uncertainty to 25%. C. A budget commitment for a set amount should be avoided in agile projects. D. Hybrid projects should include a % budget increase for requirements revisions identified during sprint reviews. E. All of the above are true.

E. All of the above are true.

The Cone of Uncertainty: A. Refers to the maximum level of software cost-estimating error a various project stages. B. Consistently narrows as the team works through various project stages. C. Consistently widens as the team works through various project stages. D. Is symmetrical in absolute dollar cost terms (vs. percentage terms) at each project stage. E. None of the above are true.

E. None of the above are true.

Which of the following is the most challenging to estimate accurately in software construction systems projects: A. Information technology and infrastructure. B. Third-party COTS application software. C. Change management costs. D. Maintenance and operational costs. E. Software construction labor costs.

E. Software construction labor costs.

Which of the following tends to be the highest cost in software construction systems projects: A. Information technology and infrastructure. B. Third-party COTS application software. C. Change management costs. D. Maintenance and operational costs. E. Software construction labor costs.

E. Software construction labor costs.