A Cost-Efficiency Model for Tool Chains

The seamless integration of development tools can help to improve the productivity of software development and reduce development costs. When tool chains are used in the context of global software engineering, they are deployed as globally distributed systems. Tool chains have the potential to bring productivity gains but they are also expensive to realize. The decision to introduce a tool chain is often made based only on a qualitative analysis of the situation. More precise analysis of the trade-offs would be possible if a quantitative model describing the cost-efficiency of tool chains would be available. We apply the COCOMO model for cost analysis in combination with the TIL model for tool chain design to create a generic quantitative estimation model for predicting the cost-efficiency of tool chains. We validate the cost-efficiency model with a case study of an industrial tool chain.