Software Project Costing: Coupling CMMI and PMBOK into a Generic Costing Framework

This study puts forward a generic and comprehensive costing framework for software projects that aims for simplicity. This is achieved by integrating commonly used CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) costing concepts in a broader organizational context. The costing framework comprises three layers: costing targets, costing activities, and policy evaluation. While the first two layers are derived from commonly used software engineering elements, the third integrates an organizational perspective through software engineers, project managers, accountants and top management. Employment of CMMI and PMBOK standards allows for easy adoption of the proposed model by organizations that are already relying on these standards.