Chapter 2: An Overview of Function Point Analysis

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OVERVIEW

Key Points:

A brief introduction to Function Point Analysis

Why is this measure so pivotal?

While this section of the book deals with areas of application of Software Metrics I would like to spend some time discussing one particular measurement technique, Function Point Analysis (FPA) which is one class of a group, a small group, of measures known as Functional Sizing Metrics. I have two reasons for doing this:

• Of all the metrics that can form part of a measurement program, Function Point Analysis is one of the most widely used, at least within the data processing sector of the industry. Now, with the new variant of FPA known as COSMIC, the real time sector is also starting to use this approach to software sizing. Indeed, the use of FPA seems to grow exponentially year on year. It is also true that FPA is one of the more contentious measures in use today, a point I would like to return to at the end of this chapter.

• I wish to introduce this technique now as it is very difficult to discuss modern Software Metrics, as we will be doing throughout the book, without making reference to FPA. Without some introduction to the technique those references could be confusing.

If you are already a user of Function Point Analysis you may wish to skip this chapter, possibly returning to it later.

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