Basics of Estimating the Costs of Implementing Social Network Sites in an Enterprise

Abstract

Using the power of the Internet, social networks are playing a significant role in more and more people’s professional and private lives. They are the fundamental part of the business models of many companies, providing financial benefits and enhancing the image. Without doubt, a great number of businesses are considering the use of social network sites in their day-to-day operations. As it is to be financed externally, the cost of such project should be known before its launching. Hence the question arises, how to estimate the labor intensity needed to create a software for building social network sites. The article answers this question, presenting seven models and several methods which can be employed to design the evaluation of creating or implementing this kind of solutions. The author reviews software estimation methods, determining how suitable they are for the assessment of the labor intensity applied to develop a social network site.