Determination of optimal resource allocation for software development-An application of a software equation

In every development project, software development managers face the problem of efficiently and effectively allocating scare resources to meet organizational needs. Previous work by Putnam and Boehm focused on the development of software cost models that measured the amount of development effort and the development time committed for a particular project. However, neither model provides a clear mechanism for determining whether a particular combination of development effort and development time are at the maximum productivity level or at the minimum cost. The purpose of this article is to extend previous work by proposing a process that allows the software manager to determine the trade off between development effort and development time that will maximize productivity or minimize cost for a given software system.