A Simple Example of Using ANGLEplus2.01

The following is a simple example to show you how to perform a typical estimation task using ANGELplus.

Step 1. Create or Open a Dataset

If you have no dataset ready to use and want to use ANGELplus to create a dataset:

a) Open a new dataset via either File|New… or the speed button (top panel leftmost).

b) Click the 'Template' tab to define the attributes to use. Attribute name and the description fields (optional) are manual edit fields and all other fields have predefined type values which can be altered by either double-clicking or pressing the space bar. Once you have finished the editing, it should be something like screen 1:

Screen 1.

c) Click the 'Source' Tab and edit the source data for each case, as shown in screen 2:

Screen 2.

If you want to use an existing ANGELplus dataset file for the estimation, open it via either File|Open… or the speed button. Once opened the Template and the Source is automatically loaded into the grids. In both cases (new or open) you need to set the target case to perform estimation.

d) Set the target case. Once you've edited the Template and the Source you can now set the values for the target case. In this example we assume that Function Points and the implementation language is already available and we want to predict the effort (in days) to complete the target project using the past projects (in the Source grids).

Screen 3.

Step 2: Set the Operation

Now, you need to:

a) Select Run|Targets Estimate… A dialog box appears. Highlight the attribute(s) from the left-hand side list box entitled 'Possible Targets' for which you want to predict for, then click the '>' button or double click to add to the 'Target to Predict list box. For this example we chose Effort (days).

b) Decide how many cases you wish to use for the prediction from the drop-down list. We chose to use all the cases available, which is 4, as indicated on screen 4.

Screen 4.

Step 3: Perform the estimation and view the result

Click OK on the dialogue window in screen 4. The following screen appears:

Screen 5.

The top-left grid shows the estimated value of effort (in days) for the target case (project). The bottom-left grid shows the distances of the cases from the target in descending order. The brackets after the case name indicated that case has been used for the prediction. The top-right panel indicates the estimation performance in terms of MMRE.