Application of Function Point Estimating

Abstract

Function point estimating is an important method for system of effort estimation. This article is based on a telecommunication surveillance module system-integrated monitoring module as example. It explains how this estimation method is applied in the project measurement process in detail.Function Point AnalysisFunction point analysis evaluates the functionality of a software system from the software end users perspective. Software functionality comes down to five basic functional elements[1], two of which represent end user demand for data: internal logical files (ILF) and external interface files (EIF). The other three are data gathering and processing features: external inputs (EI), external outputs (EO), external inquiries (EQ)[2].To determine the complexity of each functional element, the following data items are defined: record element type (RET), file type referenced, (FTR), data e1ement type (DET)[3]. To determine all functionalities complexity level, each data and transactional capabilities is assigned with low, average and high level based on standard matrix, see table 1 complexity matrix[4]. After determining the complexity of each feature, using the complexity value defined in table 2[5] multiply by the corresponding function point counts, accumulate to get the totals.Table 1: complexity matrixTable 2: IFPUG unadjusted function point basis