More Accurate Cost Estimation for Internet of Things Projects by Adaptation of Use Case Points Methodology

This article adapts the use case points (UCPs) method to estimate the size and development effort (DE) required for the Internet of Things systems. Despite the extensive use of UCP in software engineering, it has yet to be adapted for IoT systems, which is essential for project management and resource planning. Our proposed adaptation, UCP for IoT, is based on a four-layer IoT architecture and tailors the standard software UCP to the specifications of IoT systems. It was validated using a case study of three IoT systems, demonstrating its applicability and effectiveness in estimating the DE required for IoT projects. However, the results also highlight the need for further improvements, particularly given the absence of historical data sets for IoT projects. Our future work will focus on gathering such data sets and further refining the proposed model.

Automated summary

This article applies the use case points (UCPs) method to estimate the size and development effort (DE) of Internet of Things systems. It proposes a tailored UCP for IoT based on a four-layer IoT architecture and validates its applicability and effectiveness through a case study. The results highlight the need for further improvements, particularly due to the lack of historical data sets for IoT projects.