  Software effort estimation in the early stages of the software life cycle is
one of the most essential and daunting tasks for project managers. In this
research, a new model based on non-linear regression analysis is proposed to
predict software effort from use case diagrams. It is concluded that, where
software size is classified from small to very large, one linear or non-linear
equation for effort estimation cannot be applied. Our model with three
different non-linear regression equations can incorporate the different ranges
in software size.
