Patent ID: 8498887

Claim:
A computer implemented method for effective project size estimation, the computer implemented method comprising: responsive to receiving an input to predict a size of effort required to complete a project, identifying, by a computer, a set of all metrics associated with the project; selecting, by the computer, a minimum subset of essential metrics from the set of all metrics associated with the project based on experience knowledge to form a selected minimum subset of essential metrics; selecting, by the computer, a plurality of remaining metrics from the set of all metrics associated with the project that does not include the selected minimum subset of essential metrics which reduces a number of metrics to select from; constructing, by the computer, all possible combinations of subsets of metrics from each metric and each combination of different metrics within the plurality of remaining that does not include the selected minimum subset of essential metrics; combining, by the computer, the minimum subset of essential metrics with each subset of the all possible combinations of subsets of metrics constructed from each metric and each combination of different metrics within the plurality of remaining to form combined subsets of metrics; generating, by the computer, one project size prediction model for each combined subset of metrics; calculating, by the computer, an accuracy score for each generated project size prediction model; selecting, by the computer, a project size prediction model with a highest calculated accuracy score to identify a subset of effective metrics for the project, wherein the subset of effective metrics is associated with the project size prediction model with the highest calculated accuracy score; and outputting, by the computer, the project size prediction model with the highest calculated accuracy score.