Although the format of the Web logs was explained to them, and they had already implemented a minor change to WSA in their previous assignment, the application domain was not what they were used to. Other courses focus on traditional areas, such as compilers and operating systems. Even the networking course focuses on network fundamentals, not necessarily net-centric applications. Consequently, effort estimation without any previous experience was handicapped from the start. Although the application domain was new to the students, the essential problem remained.
Unclear requirements lead to unsatisfactory effort estimates.
This should not be a surprising conclusion, since requirements drive so much of any software project. Perhaps not, but they were realistic. I deliberately did not state the requirements in a formal specification, in part because the students had not yet learned about such notations. The requirements were stated in typically ambiguous prose. Consequently, most students did not really understand what I meant, and this was reflected in their erratic effort estimates.