Estimate Easy UC™ (EEUC™) is a program that allows software teams developing use cases and actors (use case based projects) to estimate the software effort early in the lifecycle by developing use case points.

Use case and actor information is entered into the system manually or using the import wizard. Each use case and actor is assigned a complexity based on the information known at the time. As the team's knowledge and expertise grows, the complexity is easily changed and a new estimate generated.

EEUC™ also considers a number of factors that might affect the estimate. These are known as estimation factors. Estimation factors take into consideration internal and external variables that are customizable and can influence the software estimate. EEUC™ allows users to modify, add or delete estimation factors as well as estimation constants.

EEUC™'s unique what-if analysis allows the team to compare and contrast different configurations of the same use case model. The team can add use cases and actors, exclude use cases and actors, and modify use case and actor complexity and estimation factors without changing the base model. The what-if analysis will generate new software estimations based on the updated information. The team can generate unlimited software estimations scenarios (Enterprise edition only) based on different what-if analysis. The estimates can be printed in HMTL format.

Use case points are a mechanism to create an estimate for the software development effort by analyzing the complexity of actors and use cases and assigning weights and relevance to technical and environmental factors. Gustav Karner originally developed use case points. This eventually became known as Karner's Method.

Once the use case points are known, they are multiplied by the staff hours required to develop one use case point to obtain the final man-power estimate.

Use case modeling is a very popular and widely used method for developing functional requirements for software systems however, use case points are still relatively new.

There are several studies published by Bente Anda, which discuss the reliability of use case points for software estimation. In her study, "Comparing Effort Estimates Based on Use Case Points with Expert Estimates," use case points estimates were actually closer to the actual effort than those produced by software developers. The study showed that over 70% of the estimates produced were closer to the actual estimates than those used by traditional methods.

Use case points are not meant to replace traditional estimation efforts, but are meant to supplement the effort. Use case point estimates are generated early in the lifecycle - much earlier than traditional methods.

Comparing Effort Estimates Based on Use Case Points with Expert Estimates

Estimating Software Development Effort based on Use Cases – Experiences from Industry

Estimation Using Use Case Points

Improving Estimation Practices by Applying Use Case Models

Improving Estimation Practices by Applying Use Case Models (PPT Slide show)

Developing estimates for the software development effort is a challenge. Companies often use developer's best guess or tools that are used late in the lifecycle - when it might be too late to adjust the schedule, budget or other resources

Use case points are generated as soon as the use case diagram is known. This occurs very early in the lifecycle. As the team gains more knowledge about the use cases, they can update the estimates. This also occurs very early in the lifecycle.

Use case point estimates can indicate a potential problem with the project early on. If the initial estimate exceeds the resources allotted, adjustments can be made to the schedule, budget, resources or project before it's too late. Resource risks can be identified and mitigated before they get out of control.

Estimate Easy UC allows anyone to create use case point estimates. The team can enter actors, use cases, technical and environmental factors, staff hours and calculation constants. Use cases and actors can also be imported from a variety of third party tools.

EEUC provides an easy to use and intuitive user interface. As the use cases change, the data in EEUC can be easily modified, producing a new estimate.

A unique feature of EEUC is the ability to generate what-if scenarios. These scenarios allow the team to modify data to determine how changes to the data will affect the estimate. The base data will remain the same.

EEUC provides default technical environmental factors that might affect your estimate. Factors can be added, deleted or modified; EEUC allows the team to customize EEUC to meet their needs. An example of a technical factor is "Distributed system." If your project is not a distributed system, this factor can be removed from the project and the estimate. If component development is part of your system, that technical factor can be added and made part of your estimate.

The customization capabilities of EEUC make it easy to tailor EEUC to your project. This ensures that the estimate generated is as accurate as possible - early in the lifecycle.

For a limited time only, EEUC Professional is available for $39.99 and EEUC Enterprise is available for $89.99.

Please visit our products page for a complete description of EEUC Professional and Enterprise.

EEUC imports use cases and actors from Rational Rose, Visio 2000, XMI 1.1 files and can import use cases from Rational RequisitePro.

Duvessa Software offers the following volume discounts:

5 - 30 licenses 12% discount

31 and more licenses 15% discount