Software engineering economics

What Hacker News says

1. brambleroseJan 2025
   I would argue that the second rule is even optional here. There is enough literature (McConnell's Software Estimation, Boehm's Software Engineering Economics) that suggests that, given a well-scoped problem and other projects to base the estimation on, a good (+/-50% or so) estimate is possible. But if you don't know what you're building it's all wasted effort because you're estimating the wrong thing!
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2. jschveibinzDec 2022
   This is the classic reference book on software estimation; and yes, it still applies in 2022…

   Barry Boehm: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Boehm

   “Software Engineering Economics” https://archive.org/details/softwareengineer0000boeh

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3. jschveibinzDec 2021
   “Software Engineering Economics” or anything else written by Barry Boehm. He writes about old school software development methodology, i.e. not agile, but extremely fundamental nonetheless.
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4. readthenotes1May 2026
   And married to Barry Boehm of Software Engineering Economics fame. That was one smart couple!
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5. readthenotes1Feb 2026
   Iirc, there is a quote from Barry Boehm, author of Software Engineering Economics, who said something in the effect of "I wish you hadn't persuaded me that requirements didn't change much in big military contracts"

   They do change, especially if projects take years.

   Not only do people tend not to read, or read well, there is a lot on inherent ambiguity in english--so even if not written stupidly there may be surprises.

   "Requirements" changed on just about every project I was on. I remember once asking the business owner if he could simplify some requirements cuz they were really complicated to develop well, and he replied Certainly--he was trying to put out something he thought would be easy for us to build.

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6. ckastnerJun 2025
   There was another 1981 paper that went into this by Boehm "Software Engineering Economics", but I can't find the details right now.

   This NASA publication [1] cites a number of studies and the cost increase factors they estimate for various stages of development, including the Boehm study.

   [1]: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20100036670/downloads/20...

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