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Software engineering is team oriented and intensely complex while relying on human collaboration and creativity more than any other engineering discipline. Poor software estimation is, on average, a billion dollar problem within the United States per year. Effective measurement of team cohesion is foundationally important in obtaining accurate estimations of software development schedules, quality, and cost. In light of recent team cohesion research, COCOMO II.2000 (Constructive Cost Model II), a well-known industry software estimation tool, appears to contain a less than effective method in determining team cohesion. The TEAM variable, one of five variables which make up an exponent within the COCOMO II.2000 model, represents the team cohesion measure of all stakeholders involved in the software development product life cycle. An ineffective or inaccurate team cohesion measure can create an exponential error within the COCOMO II software estimation results. Using the Delphi method, a panel consisting of team cohesion, project management, and emotional intelligence experts have determined the COCOMO II.2000 TEAM variable does not effectively represent team cohesion.

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Dr. Betty A. Snowdeal-Carden has more than 28 years of DoD experience managing full life-cycle software projects and developing client, mobile, and web n-tier enterprise applications. She has collaborated with MIT and JHU in creating an integrated cyber security tool suite to analyze C4I systems security for DoD Cyber Security Initiatives.

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