Research Areas I am interested in include: Web cost estimation and productivity benchmarking, Effort estimation techniques, Web sizing, Measurement tools, Computer Science/Software engineering teaching, Web process improvement, Web usability measurement, Evidence-based Software & Web Engineering.

 

At the University of Auckland, I lead the WETA (Web Engineering, Technology, and Applications) Research Group.

Because of my research contribution to date, I have program committee membership of 90+ International conferences which include:

ACM hypertext (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007); IEE Empirical Assessment in Software Engineering (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008); IEEE Metrics Symposium (2003, 2005); World-Wide Web conference (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008);International Web Engineering Conference (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008); AusWeb (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008), ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering (2005, 2006), ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (2007, 2008).

I am also on the Editorial board of the International Journal of Web Engineering Technology (IJWET), the Journal of Web Engineering (JWE), the Journal of Software Measurement, the International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications, and the Empirical Software Engineering Journal.

Research projects I am involved in:

Tukutuku Benchmarking project
Case Based reasoning adaptation techniques
Web cost estimation
Early Web size metrics for cost estimation
Cross-company Web cost models versus within-company Web cost models
Web metrics for productivity measurement
Risk Analysis and portfolio management for Web projects
Computer Science teaching

 

 

Tukutuku Benchmarking project: The Tukutuku project aims to gather data on Web projects worldwide to be used to develop Web cost estimation models based on early effort predictors and to benchmark productivity across and within Web Companies. The Tukutuku Benchmarking project started officially on October 2002. To date we have received 91 Web projects from 25 Web companies in 9 different countries. Further detail on Tukutuku (e.g. collaborators, publications, data entry forms) can be found here.
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Case Based reasoning adaptation techniques: This research looks at the employment of Case-based reasoning adaptation rules in the context of effort estimation. Adaptation rules are used to adapt the estimated effort, according to a given criterion, such that it reflects the characteristics of the target project more closely. For example, in the context of effort prediction, the estimated effort to develop an application app would be adapted such that it would also take into consideration an app’s size values. We have applied adaptation rules to software and Web effort estimation. Related publications:

  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N. Investigating the Use of Case-based Reasoning Adaptation Rules for Web Project Cost Estimation, International Journal Web Engineering Technology (accepted for publication), 2004.
  • MENDES, E., AND MOSLEY, N. Using Linear Size Adjustment to Adapt Estimated Effort for Web Applications, Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, e-Business and Applications, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, pp. 37-42.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY,N. AND COUNSELL, S. Do Adaptation Rules Improve Web Cost Estimation? Proceedings ACM Conference on Hypertext, UK, 2003.
  • KIRSOPP, C., MENDES, E., PREMRAJ, R., AND SHEPPERD, M. An Empirical Analysis of Adaptation Techniques for Case-Based Prediction, Proceedings of 5th International Conference Case-Based Reasoning, Trondheim, Norway, June 23 to 26, 2003.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N., AND COUNSELL, S. A Replicated Assessment of the Use of Adaptation Rules to Improve Web Cost Estimation, Proceedings of the ACM and IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, Rome, Italy, 2003, pp:100-109.
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Web cost estimation: This research looks at the proposal and comparison of cost models for Web cost estimation, where the Web applications can be either be dynamic or static. These cost models have been generated using numerous techniques, such as multivariate regression, case-based reasoning and classification and regression trees. We have employed both student-based and industrial data to generate our models. A few related publications:

  • MENDES, E., WATSON, I., TRIGGS, C., MOSLEY, N, AND COUNSELL, S. A Comparative Study of Cost Estimation Models for Web Hypermedia Applications, Empirical Software Engineering, Vol. 8. No. 2, 2003, pp. 163-196.
  • MENDES, E., COUNSELL, S., AND MOSLEY, N. Web Hypermedia Cost Estimation: further assessment and comparison of cost estimation modelling techniques, The New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 2002, pp. 199-229.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY , N. , COUNSELL, S. Web metrics - Metrics for estimating effort to design and author Web applications. IEEE MultiMedia, special issue on Web Engineering, January-March 2001, pp. 50-57.
  • MENDES, E., and MOSLEY, N. Further Investigation into the Use of CBR and Stepwise Regression to Predict Development Effort for Web Hypermedia Applications, Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering, Nara, Japan, pp. 79-90, 2002.
  • MENDES, E., WATSON, I., TRIGGS, C., MOSLEY, N., COUNSELL, S. A Comparison of Development Effort Estimation Techniques for Web Hypermedia Applications, Proceedings IEEE Metrics Symposium, June, Ottawa, Canada, pp-141-151, 2002.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N., and COUSELL, S. The Application of Case-Based Reasoning to Early Web Project Cost Estimation, Proceedings of the IEEE 26th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference - COMPSAC, August, 2002.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY , N. , COUNSELL, S. Using an Engineering Approach to Understanding and Predicting Web authoring and Design. Proceedings of the Web Engineering Minitrack at the Thirty-Fourth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS- 4), Maui, Hawaii, 2001, IEEE CS Press.
  • MENDES, E., COUNSELL, S. Web Development Effort Estimation using Analogy, Proceedings of the 2000 Australian Software Engineering Conference - ASWEC 2000, April 28-April 0, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia, IEEE CS Press. pp. 20 -212.
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Early Web size metrics for cost estimation: This research focuses on the identification of size metrics that can estimated by customers early on in the development cycle of a Web application. We have looked at early metrics that can be obtained from requirements documents and also those that can be obtained directly from customers using, for example, on-line Web price quote forms. A few related publications:
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N. , COUNSELL, S. , Comparison of Length, complexity and functionality as size measures for predicting Web design and authoring effort, IEE Proc. Software, Vol. 149, No. 3 June 2002, pp. 86-92.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N. AND COUNSELL, S. Investigating Early Size Measures for Web Cost Estimation, Proceedings of IEE Empirical Assessment in Software Engineering Conference, Keele University, 2003.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N., AND COUNSELL, S. Early Web Size Measures and Effort Prediction for Web Costimation, Proceedings of the IEEE Metrics Symposium, Sydney, September 2003, pp: 18-29.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY, N., AND COUNSELL, S. Early Web Size Measures and Effort Prediction for Web Costimation, Proceedings of the IEEE Metrics Symposium, Sydney, September 2003, pp: 18-29.
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Cross-company cost models versus within-company cost models: This investigation looks into comparing cost models that have been generated using data on Web projects from numerous Web companies to models generated using data from a single Web company. Our research question here is: , investigating to what extent a cross-company cost model can be successfully employed to estimate effort for projects that belong to a single company, where no projects from this company were used to build the cross-company model ? . Related publications are:
  • KITCHENHAM, B.A., AND MENDES, E. A Comparison of Cross-company and Within-company Effort Estimation Models for Web Applications, EASE Conference (accepted for publication), 2004.
  • MENDES, E., AND KITCHENHAM, B.A. Further Comparison of Cross-company and Within-company Effort Estimation Models for Web Applications, (submitted) 2004.
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Web metrics for productivity measurement: This research looks into using data on Web projects to benchmark their productivity. The issue here is that, if we take productivity to be size/effort then what size metric are we going to use to size Web applications given that there is no standard on sizing Web applications?. Ou results can also be applied to non-Web based applications whenever size is measured using more than one attribute. Related publications are:
  • KITCHENHAM, B.A., AND MENDES, E. Software Productivity Measurement using Complex Size Measures, (submitted), 2004.
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Risk Analysis and portfolio management for Web projects: This research proposes a portfolio management method that uses effort estimates to build sets of feasible deadlines for software projects at the bidding stage. Effort estimates can involve considerable error, and this must be taken into account when selecting deadlines. We show how a simple probability model can allow for possible errors. The model is built using a single effort estimate for each current project, together with historical data on estimated and actual effort for former projects. Related publications:
  • FEWSTER, R., AND MENDES, E. Portfolio Management Method for Deadline Planning, Proceedings of the IEEE Metrics Symposium, Sydney, September 2003, pp:325-337.
  • FEWSTER, R. , MENDES, E. Measurement, Prediction and Risk Analysis for Web Applications. Proceedings of IEEE Metrics'2001-7th International Software metrics Symposium, IEEE CS Press, 2001.
  • FEWSTER, R. , MENDES, E. Empirical Evaluation and Prediction of Web Applications' Development Effort, Proceedings of EASE'00 - Fourth International Conference on Empirical Assessment and Evaluation in Software Engineering, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK, April 17th - 19th, 2000.
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Computer Science teaching: This research looks into the use of the Cognitive Flexibility Theory as a teaching aid to improve learning. Recently we have also started to look into the use of pair programming as another way to improve learning. Related publications:
  • MENDES, E. Applying the Cognitive Flexibility Theory to Teaching Web Engineering, Proceedings of the Australasian Computer Education Conference, Adelaide, Australia; 4--7 February, 2003.
  • MENDES, E., MOSLEY , N. , COUNSELL, S. The Cognitive Flexibility Theory: an approach for Teaching Hypermedia Engineering, Proceedings of the 6th ACM Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education - ITiCSE2001, Canterbury, UK, 2001.
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