The use of simulation for cost driver identification and product cost allocation is an unexplored area in ABC literature and would form the basis for further research. In order to make the discussion of the software development processes complete, some of the cost measures used currently by the industry are mentioned below. However, these measures would prove incomplete in the ABC scenario. The identification of the cost drivers for the IS activities would be based on the results of the use of Petri net modeling softwares and the results of the simulation results therefrom and is a topic of further research. The cost drivers currently used are given below.
Lines of code is representative of the complexity of the application.
However, advent of 4-GLs and code generators, the applicability of these measures loses significance. A number of these cost drivers could be extended to measure the performance of the IS administration processes and would thus indirectly result in the setting up of a streamlined responsibility accounting process in the organization and also in exploring opportunities for process improvements. In this paper we have discussed a modeling method which uses colored Petri nets. The colored Petri nets allow analysts to examine and evaluate the system under study at various levels of details. The use of colored Petri nets for activity analysis and identification.