abstract = "The effort invested in a software project is probably
one of the most important and most analyzed variables
in recent years in the process of project management.
The limitation of algorithmic effort prediction models
is their inability to cope with uncertainties and
imprecision surrounding software projects at the early
development stage. More recently attention has turned
to a variety of machine learning methods, and soft
computing in particular to predict software development
effort. Soft computing is a consortium of methodologies
centering in fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks,
and evolutionary computation. It is important, to
mention here, that these methodologies are
complementary and synergistic, rather than competitive.
They provide in one form or another flexible
information processing capability for handling real
life ambiguous situations. These methodologies are
currently used for reliable and accurate estimate of
software development effort, which has always been a
challenge for both the software industry and academia.
The aim of this study is to analyze soft computing
techniques in the existing models and to provide in
depth review of software and project estimation
techniques existing in industry and literature based on
the different test datasets along with their strength
and weaknesses",
notes = "International Journal of Advanced Computer and
Mathematical Sciences ISSN 2230-9624. Vol 2, Issue 3,
2011, pp 160-167