A Self-Adaptive Differential Evolution Using a New Adaption Based Operator for Software Cost Estimation

Today, predicting software parameters accurately during the initial software development stage is one of the biggest challenges facing most companies. In this article, it was discussed how meta-heuristic algorithms are used to solve multiple optimization problems that arise in mathematical and software models. The proposed method for solving optimization problems employs new adaptive mutation operators by incorporating a new syndrome adaptive mutation operator, which provides more diversity among candidate solutions. Further, by comparing the proposed mutation operator method with standard meta-heuristic algorithms, these were able to select better mutation results for 24 benchmark functions. Furthermore, the proposed method is useful for solving software engineering issues, including estimating software costs, which accurately predicts software parameters by optimizing the effort and errors for the constructive cost model. In comparison with other standard optimization algorithms, the proposed algorithm has a better ability to predict costs. © 2022, The Institution of Engineers (India).