A Case Study to Assess the Validity of Function Points

Many metrics were proposed to evaluate the characteristics of the analysis and design model of a given product which in turn help to assess the quality of the product. Function point metric is a measure of the 'functionality' delivery by the software. This paper presents an analysis of a set of programs of a project developed in Cµ through Function Points metric. Function points are measured for a Data Flow Diagram (DFD) of the case developed at initial stage. Lines of Codes (LOCs) and possible errors are calculated with the help of measured Function Points (FPs). The calculations are performed using suitable established functions. Calculated LOCs and errors are compared with actual LOCs and errors found at the time of analysis & design review, implementation and testing. It has been observed that actual found errors are more than calculated errors. On the basis of analysis and observations, authors conclude that function point provides useful insight and helps to analyze the drawbacks in the development process.




References:
[1] Alain Abran, Pierre N. Robillard, "Function Points Analysis: An
Empirical Study of Its Measurement Processes", IEEE Transactions on
Software Engineering,, Volume 22, Issue 12, December 1996
[2] C. R. Symons, "Function Point Analysis: Difficulties and
Improvements", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Volume
14, Issue 1, January 1988
[3] Chris F. Kemerer, "Reliability of function points measurement: a field
experiment", Communications of the ACM, Volume 36, Issue 2,
February 1993
[4] Chris F. Kemerer, Benjamin S. Porter, "Improving the Reliability of
Function Point Measurement: An Empirical Study", IEEE Transactions
on Software Engineering, Volume18, Issue 11, November 1992
[5] Futrell, Robert T., Shafer Donald F. and Shafer, Linda I., "Quality
Software Project Management," Pearson Education Pte. Ltd., Delhi, 1st
edition, 2002.
[6] G. Antoniol, R. Fiutem, C. Lokan, "Object-Oriented Function Points: An
Empirical Validation", Empirical Software Engineering, Volume 8, Issue
3, September 2003
[7] Giuliano Antoniol, Chris Lokan, Gianluigi Caldiera, Roberto Fiutem, "A
Function Point-Like Measure for Object-Oriented Software Empirical
Software Engineering, Volume4, Issue 3, September 1999
[8] Godbole, Nina S., "Software Quality Assurance: Principles and
Practices", Alpha Science International Ltd., 2004.
[9] Graham C. Low, D. R. Jeffery, "Function Points in the Estimation and
Evaluation of the Software Process", IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, Volume 16, Issue 1, January 1990
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_point
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_testing
[12] http://jira.atlassian.com/secure/attachment/17146/sqa+activities.txt
[13] http://www.isb.wa.gov/policies/portfolio/tr25/tr25_l2e.html
[14] http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatfaq1.html
[15] http://www.softwareqatest.com/qatfaq2.html
[16] http://www.stickyminds.com/sitewide.asp?Function=edetail&ObjectTyp
e=ART&ObjectId=6331
[17] IEEE Standards Collection: Software Engineering, IEEE Standard
[18] J. E. Matson, B. E. Barrett, J. M. Mellichamp, "Software Development
Cost Estimation Using Function Points", IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, Volume 20, Issue 4, April 1994
[19] Jalote, Pankaj, "CMM in Practice," Pearson Education Pte. Ltd., 1st
edition. 2004.
[20] Kan, Stephen H., "Metrics and Models in Software Quality
Engineering," Pearson Education Pte. Ltd., Delhi, 2nd edition, 2004.
[21] McCall, J. P. Richards and G Walters, "Factors in software Quality,"
NTIS AA-A049-014, 015, 055 Nov 1977
[22] Mohammed Abdullah Al-Hajri, Abdul Azim Abdul Ghani, Md Nasir
Sulaiman, Mohd Hasan Selamat, "Modification of standard function
point complexity weights system", IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, Volume 19, Issue 7, July 1993
[23] Mohammed Abdullah Al-Hajri, Abdul Azim Abdul Ghani, Md Nasir
Sulaiman, Mohd Hasan Selamat, "Modification of standard function
point complexity weights system", Journal of Systems and Software,
Volume74, Issue 2, January 2005
[24] Pressman, Roger S., "Software Engineering: A Practitioner Approach,"
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 4th edition, 1997.
[25] R. Rask, P. Laamanen, K. Lyyttinen, "Simulation and Comparison of
Albrecht's Function Point and DeMarco's Function Bang Metrics in a
CASE Environment", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
Volume 19, Issue 7, July 1993
[26] Sebastian Kiebusch, Bogdan Franczyk, "Process family points versus
(full) function points", EDSER '06: Proceedings of the 2006
international workshop on Economics driven software engineering
research, May 2006
[27] Shinji Kusumoto, Masahiro Imagawa, Katsuro Inoue, Shuuma
Morimoto, Kouji Matsusita, Michio Tsuda, "Function point
measurement from Java programs May 2002 ICSE '02: Proceedings of
the 24th International Conference on Software Engineering", Journal of
Systems and Software, Volume 74, Issue 2, January 2005
[28] Silvia Abrahão, Geert Poels, "Experimental evaluation of an objectoriented
function point measurement procedure", Information and
Software Technology, Volume 49, Issue 4, April 2007
[29] Wei Xia, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Danny Ho, Faheem Ahmed, "A new
calibration for Function Point complexity weights", Information and
Software Technology, Volume 50, Issue 7-8, June 2008
[30] Wendy W.Peng, Dolores R. Wallace, "Software Error Analysis", NIST
Special Publication 500-209