ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at a special family of Power Function curves that collectively are known as Learning Curves, or sometimes by the names of progress functions or cost improvement curves. In general, Learning Curves relate to the time, effort or cost required to carry out repetitive activities, and have been shown empirically to work in many different sectors of industry. The book aims to be a practical reference guide to a range of numerical techniques and models that an estimator might wish to consider in analysing historical data in order to forecast the future. It introduces a healthy debate on what causes or hinders learning, drawing in the plethora of studies spanning eight decades. The book shows how learning can be shared across a family of similar products or variants of a base product.
