[comp.software-eng] References on Function Points metric sought

jon@june.cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky) (11/09/88)

I keep seeing mention of a technique for estimating effort, cost, or errors
in software projects based on something called "function point analysis".
I don't know much about it, but it is apparently based on assessing the
functionality described in the specification, which seems obviously more
useful than measures based on the size or other measurers of the code (which
you don't really know until you're almost done with the project).

Although I've seen it mentioned in trade papers like COMPUTERWORLD, and a
recent posting in SOFT-ENG DIGEST says it is the basis for a software cost
estimating product, I have never seen a paper in a journal that describes
how the metric is calculated, and presents data showing how its predictions
match with actual experience.   COMPUTERWORLD says it was introduced in 1979
by A.J. Albrecht, and IBM researcher, but I find no articles by that author
in THE IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL since 1979 (actually there is one, but it has
nothing to do with function points or any other metrics).

Can anyone enlighten me?

- Jonathan Jacky, University of Washington

uichanco@unc.cs.unc.edu (Edilberto Uichanco) (11/09/88)

The following articles describe and analyze Function Points:

	"Software Function, Source Lines of Code, and Development
		Effort Prediction: A Software Science Validation"
	by Allan J. Albrecht and John E. Gaffney, Jr.
	IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. SE-9, NO. 6
	November 1983

	"Function Point Analysis: Difficulties and Improvements"
	by Charles R. Symons
	IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 14, NO. 1
	January 1988

The first article is co-written by Albrecht, the developer of the
Function Point estimation method.  I hope these help.

-Bong Uichanco (uichanco@cs.unc.edu)