This Forum is co-sponsored by The Aerospace Corporation and Unison Cost Engineering. This is our first bi-coastal hybrid event (online and in person). This year’s focus is on the role of new technologies in cost estimation
Topics
- Workforce development, turnover, and training challenges (e.g., generational communication, experience gap).
- Coping with lack of knowledge among younger engineers in cost modeling – a cultural influence from senior engineers mentoring younger engineers.
- Measurement and cost estimating for Digital Engineering and MBE projects.
- Overall challenges to measuring and estimating the cost of different development paradigms (e.g., MBE, Agile, and DevOps).
- The role of AI and Machine Learning in building cost estimates and measurements.
- New or modified size and/or cost drivers to estimate software development effort in response to changing development processes and environments/tools (e.g., Agile and DevOps).
- Measuring size/cost/schedule impacts from cybersecurity requirements.
- Cloud services measurement and cost estimation for development and sustainment.
Program Schedule
| All times in Pacific Standard Time (PST) | |
| Tuesday, 11/4 | |
| 7:45 AM | Boehm CSSE Introduction |
| 8:00 AM | On the Shoulders of Giants: A Tribute to Barry W. Boehm by Dan Galorath (Galorath) |
| 9:00 AM | Break | Lunch (West Coast | East Coast) |
| 10:10 AM | AI Cost Estimation by Arlene Minkiewicz (Unison) |
| 10:50 AM | From Data Dumps to Smart Insights: Unleashing AI for Software Cost Benchmarking by Esteban Sanchez and Brad Clark (Galorath) |
| 11:30 AM | AI-powered RFPs: Leveraging Generative AI Technology in Defense Acquisitions by Maddie Machovec (Aerospace) |
| 12:10 PM | Closing for the day |
| Wednedsay, 11/5 | |
| 8:00 AM | The Evolution of Cost Estimation: From a Technical Workflow to an Enterprise Asset by Courtney Smith (Unison) |
| 9:00 AM | Break | Lunch (West Coast | East Coast) |
| 9:30 AM | An Update on ICEAA’s Cost Estimation Body of Knowledge by Kevin Cinotta (MITRE) |
| 10:10 AM | An Update on ICEAA’s CEBoK-S (Software) by Carol Dekkers (Quality Plus) |
| 10:50 AM | Software Factory including AI and its impact on NextGen COCOMO model by David Seaver |
| 11:30 AM | Research on Challenges for Integrating Measurement and Control Mechanisms into Engineered Systems Viewed Through the Prism of Future Systems – Part 2 by Kenneth Nidiffer (George Mason Univeristy) |
| 12:10 PM | Closing for the day |
| Thursday, 11/6 | |
| 8:00AM | Trustworthy AI for Cost Modeling via Deterministic Delegation and Smart Input Inference by Ray Madachy (Naval Postgraduate School) |
| 9:00 AM | Break | Lunch (West Coast | East Coast) |
| 9:30 AM | The Importance of Language Factors in Software Estimation by Alton Ng and Svetlana Johnson (Galorath) |
| 10:10 AM | Software Release Budgeting and Forecasting with Cadence by Amar Zabarah and Kevin McKeel (Logapps) |
| 10:50 AM | Bridging the Gap: Mentoring Across Generations and Domains in Cost Estimation by Jason Kinsfather and Nygel Irvine (Galorath) |
| 11:30 AM | Towards Estimating Schedule for Systems Engineering Projects by Jim Alstad (Boehm CSSE) |
| 11:45 AM | Board of Directors Annual Meeting (New Board Members to be announced) |
Submission
Please submit a 1-3 paragraph abstract along with two author biographies: one consisting of 2 sentences and the other in paragraph form.
Important Dates
| August 16, 2025 | Paper submission deadline |
| September 9, 2025 | Acceptance notification |
| September 15 – 30, 2025 | Early bird registration |
| October 1 – 31, 2025 | Regular registration |
| November 4 – 6, 2025 | Conference dates |
Location
West Coast: 200 N Aviation Blvd, El Segundo, CA @Aerospace
East Coast: 8444 Westpark Dr, Suite 920, McLean, VA @Unison
Ticketing
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COCOMO Forum 2025
November 4, 2025 – November 6, 2025
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
