Patent attributes
Mechanisms are provided for estimating requirements for completion of a project. These mechanisms, which may be implemented by a data processing system, define general project factors for a general kind of project as well as analysis rules for this general kind of project. A complexity matrix that defines a plurality of complexity measures for a plurality of project factors for a specific project is provided. The analysis rules are applied to the project factors of the complexity matrix to generate a single complexity measure for the specific project. This complexity measure is used by an estimation mechanism to generate an estimate of requirements for completing the project. Exceptional combinations of project factors may be defined to force the single complexity measure to a maximum value when the conditions of the exceptional combinations are met by the complexity measures of the complexity matrix for a specific project.