COCOMO Cost Estimation
How do we estimate the value of software? No single method is perfect, but COCOMO is a great place to start.
What is COCOMO?
COCOMO (Constructive Cost Model) is a cost estimation model used in software engineering to estimate the effort, time, and cost required to develop a software project. It was developed by Barry Boehm in the early 1980s and has since become one of the most widely used models for software cost estimation.
COCOMO is based on empirical data collected from a wide range of software projects and is designed to provide estimates based on the size of the software, measured in lines of code (LOC) or function points. The model takes into account various factors that can affect the cost and effort required for software development, such as the complexity of the project, the experience of the development team, and the development environment.
The Empirical Value of Hylist
This table IS NOT a reflection of the actual cost to license Hylist software. We license at a fraction of the cost of development. This report provides a value proposition to our customers and may aid decision-making when considering to develop WebRTC software in-house verses licensing with us.
The following COCOMO report is generated by SCC (last updated 03/29/2025):
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Language Files Lines Blanks Comments Code Complexity
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Dart 322 38105 4541 6478 27086 1343
Go 135 21997 2903 3033 16061 1715
Markdown 40 2260 593 0 1667 0
YAML 32 4069 143 440 3486 0
JSON 15 1014 1 0 1013 0
JavaScript 13 12084 30 302 11752 2116
MDX 12 669 151 0 518 0
Shell 9 423 50 147 226 18
TypeScript 9 567 43 93 431 38
CSS 7 222 30 22 170 0
Swift 7 540 117 42 381 62
XML 7 153 2 57 94 0
Terraform 6 2851 494 100 2257 96
SVG 5 110 13 5 92 0
Kotlin 4 121 18 7 96 2
HTML 3 199 14 17 168 0
Go Template 2 242 18 37 187 47
HCL 2 84 4 4 76 0
Plain Text 2 113 0 0 113 0
Properties File 2 8 0 0 8 0
Snakemake 2 27 3 0 24 8
TypeScript Typings 2 515 4 46 465 89
Xcode Config 2 4 0 0 4 0
C Header 1 1 0 0 1 0
Docker ignore 1 18 4 6 8 0
Dockerfile 1 51 10 27 14 3
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Total 643 86447 9186 10863 66398 5537
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Estimated Cost to Develop (organic) $2,212,371
Estimated Schedule Effort (organic) 18.60 months
Estimated People Required (organic) 10.57
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COCOMO Estimation using SCC
The SCC (Sloc Cloc and Code) tool includes a COCOMO estimation feature that helps estimate the effort, time, and cost required for software development based on the project's source code. SCC factors using the Basic COCOMO model, which is a widely used estimation technique based on lines of code (LOC). This report provides an approximate effort calculation for software projects.
COCOMO Model Basics
The Basic COCOMO model estimates three key metrics based on the number of source lines of code (SLOC):
- Effort (Person-Months, PM) =
a * (SLOC ^ b) - Time (Months) =
c * (PM ^ d) - People Required =
Effort / Time
The values of a, b, c, and d vary depending on the project type. Hylist uses a conservative "organic" project type for its estimates, which is suitable for most projects. The following table summarizes the values used in the COCOMO model:
| Project Type | a | b | c | d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic | 2.4 | 1.05 | 2.5 | 0.38 |
| Semi-Detached | 3.0 | 1.12 | 2.5 | 0.35 |
| Embedded | 3.6 | 1.20 | 2.5 | 0.32 |
Further Reading
Check out this awesome Geeks for Geeks article for more information on COCOMO and its variants.