The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is an estimating approach based on splitting up the activities into partial
activities up to a level of detail at which the required time per activity can be estimated. By adding the time
required for the partial activities, the total required time is calculated.
The table below shows the number of hours per quality characteristic. For quality characteristics where the strategy
matters, this is shown. The hours are derived from actual practice. Please note that the experience base and therefore
the how hard the figures are differs. Levels of hardness are:
-
Hard - experience from multiple projects, confirmed on the basis of multiple sources
-
Experience - based on a few sources
-
Soft - an estimate by experienced test consultants.
Practice demonstrates which factors have the greatest impact on the definitive number of hours. These factors are
shown.
|
Quality characteristic
|
Strategy
|
Hardness
estimation
|
Hours
|
Important factors for variation
in size
|
|
Manageability
Installability
|
|
Soft
|
24
|
|
|
Security
|
●●●
|
Experience
|
80
|
Minimal, hour box
|
|
Effectivity
|
●●●
|
Soft
|
350
|
Including hours of users
|
|
Continuity
|
●●●
|
N/A
|
|
Depends on the duration of
shadow
production
|
|
User-friendliness
|
●
|
Hard
|
70
|
Size of application (limit 15/100
screens)
Scope of research question (limit:
several subjects)
|
|
User-friendliness
|
●●
|
Hard
|
80
|
|
User-friendliness
|
●●●
|
Hard
|
130
|
|
Performance, online
|
●●
|
Hard
|
192 to 224
|
Low: 15 user tasks
High: 40 user tasks
Complex database
|
|
Portability
|
●
|
Soft
|
28
|
|
|
Economy
|
●●
|
Soft
|
28
|
|
Please note: The table above does not include hours for e.g. setting up a usability lab or selecting test-support packages.
The starting point is that the required facilities must be available.
|
