Duration Estimation of Template Based PHP Software Projects Based on Practical Exams Analysis: A Case Study

Abstract

Within information system development, some of the most important issues in software project management are software complexity, software quality and performance, as well as estimation of software project duration and cost. It is of a great importance to introduce these important issues to students during their study time within teaching process. Moreover, in assessment and exams period, proper estimation of students’ programming workload is another relevant issue. This paper deals with educational context of estimation of software projects duration, particularly for software developed for the organizational context, i.e. within information systems development. The main result of this paper is presenting teaching methodology within the case study in PHP programming as well as analysis of exams results. Teaching methodology is presented with practical lectures content (template-based programming, OOP, CRUD) and organization of classes, preparation for exams and exams conducting. Exams results analysis is the basis for a case study that demonstrates application of the method for estimation of students’ PHP projects workload (duration) planning.