A functional size measurement method for object-oriented conceptual schemas: design and evaluation issues (original) (raw)

On the Estimation of the Functional Size of Software from Requirements Specifications

Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 2007

This paper introduces a measurement procedure, called RmFFP, which describes a set of operations for modelling and estimating the size of object-oriented software systems from high-level specifications using the OO-Method Requirement Model. OO-Method is an automatic software production method. The contribution of this work is to systematically define a set of rules that allows estimating the functional size at an early stage of the software production process, in accordance with COSMIC-FFP. To do this, we describe the design, the application, and the analysis of the proposed measurement procedure following the steps of a process model for software measurement. We also report initial results on the evaluation of RmFFP in terms of its reproducibility.

Application of OO metrics to estimate .NET project software size

One of the key questions in software development is software size estimation. For systematic software size estimation, different methods are used, all of which have their roots in the Function Point Analysis (FPA) method. However, the elements and constructs of the FPA method are not directly applicable to object-oriented concepts: a mapping of object-oriented concepts to FPA elements is required. There are proposals for such mappings, but a serious calibration and validation process is required to ensure that the various parameters have been chosen in the most appropriate way. Such a validation implies the creation of effective product metrics working in environments like the industrial standard .NET platform. Since .NET is a typical multi-language environment, a product metric capturing all languages and producing comparable and accumulable results is hard and expensive to produce. Therefore we propose to solve the problem in the .NET Common Interface Language level: thus only one...

Design of a functional size measurement procedure for a model-driven software development method

The capability to accurately quantify the size of software developed with a Model-Driven Development (MDD) method is critical to software project managers for evaluating risks, developing project estimates, and having early project indicators. This paper presents a measurement procedure defined according to the last version of the ISO 19761 standard measurement method. The measurement procedure has been designed to measure the functional size of object-oriented applications generated from their conceptual models by means of model transformations. The measurement procedure is structured in three phases: the strategy phase, where the purpose of the measurement is defined; the mapping phase, where the elements of the conceptual model that contribute to the functional size are selected; and the measurement phase, where the functional size of the generated application is obtained.

Improving Software Functional Size Measurement

1999

Software functional size measurement is regarded as a key aspect in the production, calibration and use of software engineering productivity models because of its independence of technologies and of implementation decisions. In 1997, Full Function Points (FFP) was proposed as a method for measuring the functional size of real-time and embedded software. Since its introduction, the FFP measurement method has been field-tested in many organizations which have provided feedback on ways to improve it. Based on this feedback and in association with the Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC), version 2.0 of the COSMIC-FFP measurement method will be released in October 1999 for fieldtesting. This paper describes the new features of COSMIC-FFP version 2.0, including: a generic software model adapted for the purpose of functional size measurement, a two-phase approach to functional size measurement (mapping and measurement), a simplified set of base functional components (BFC) and a scalable aggregation function. Through its generic software model of functional users requirements, version 2.0 of the COSMIC-FFP measurement method is applicable to a broad range of software, including embedded, MIS, middleware and system software.

An Extended Function Point Approach for Size Estimation of Object-Oriented Software

Early and accurate estimation of software size plays a crucial role in facilitating effort and cost estimation of software systems. One of the widely used methodologies for software size estimation is Function Point Analysis (FPA). Several approaches which adapt this methodology to Object Oriented (OO) Software have been proposed in the literature. However, these approaches lack clarity in providing precise directives for the identification of FPA components. Further, when a particular class is involved in multiple interactions such as aggregation, association and inheritance, its complexity calculation is ambiguous. In order to address these issues, this paper proposes a new and enhanced approach for OO software size estimation by providing rules that better guide the practitioners. This paper discusses a sample case study describing the applicability of the proposed approach. The developmental size predicted by applying the proposed approach for a set of sample projects correlates well with the size prediction obtained through the existing approaches. Thus, the proposed approach provides simple and unambiguous guidelines for the identification of FPA components as well as for the calculation of complexity due to each one of those components, without adversely affecting the accuracy of software size estimation.

On the Ability of Functional Size Measurement Methods to Size Complex Software Applications

The most popular Functional Size Measurement methods, namely IFPUG Function Point Analysis and the COSMIC method, adopt a concept of "functionality" that is based mainly on the data involved in functions and data movements. Neither of the mentioned methods takes directly into consideration the amount of data processing involved in a process. Functional size measures are often used as a basis for estimating the effort required for software development, and it is known that development effort does depend on the amount of data processing code to be written. Thus, it is interesting to investigate to what extent the most popular functional size measures represent the functional processing features of requirements and, consequently, the amount of data processing code to be written. To this end, we consider a few applications that provide similar functionality, but require different amounts of data processing. These applications are then measured via both functional size measurement methods and traditional size measures (such as Lines of Code). A comparison of the obtained measures shows that differences among the applications are best represented by differences in Lines of Code. It is likely that the actual size of an application that requires substantial amounts of data processing is not fully represented by functional size measures. In summary, the paper shows that not taking into account data processing dramatically limits the expressiveness of the size measures. Practitioners that use size measures for effort estimation should complement functional size measures with measures that quantify data processing, to get precise effort estimates.

Automating the Measurement of Functional Size of Conceptual Models in an MDA Environment

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2008

The manual measurement of functional size is generally very timeconsuming and has many precision errors. For this reason, it is necessary to automate the measurement process to obtain a solution that can be applied in a MDA industrial development. The OO-Method COSMIC Function Points (OOmCFP) is a measurement procedure that has been designed to measure the functional size of object-oriented applications generated from their conceptual models by means of model transformations. This work presents the definition of the mechanisms that are necessary to automate the OOmCFP procedure. This work also presents the OOmCFP tool that implements the OOmCFP procedure. Since this tool measures the functional size of industrial applications generated in MDA environments from their conceptual models, it is not necessary to perform the measurement task on the final code. The OOmCFP tool incorporates the benefits that the COSMIC measurement method provides. These benefits are demonstrated through a comparative analysis.

Measuring Software Functionality Using Function Point Method Based On Design Documentation

2012

Estimated value of software as agreed by the end user and the developer team should be expressed in a certain magnitude, one of which is the measure of functionality. Function Point (FP) Method is one of the methods used to obtain the size of the functionality and can be used to estimate cost, duration, and amount of resources required by a software project. However, Function Point measurement is not simple and requires expertise in software analysis. Furthermore, the results of the calculation are considered valid if it is verified by someone with International Function Point User Group (IFPUG) certification. This research aims at designing and implementing a system that makes users convenient in analyzing software functionality size based on FP method referring to IFPUG CPM 4.3.1 standards. The system helps users to perform FP analysis in a faster and easier way without sacrificing accuracy. The input for the system is XMI document resulting from software design documentation derived from UML documents. The study also reveals that the more complete UML documents of the software in the project, the more accurate the FP calculation results obtained.