Importance of Software Project Size
(FPA), Function Point Analysis was initially originated by a person by the name Allan Albrecht in the belated years of 1970 when he was working at (IBM), International Business Machine. Since then, function point analysis has further been advanced by (IFPUG), International Function Point Users Group where it is used to determine the software project size and enable working of the project to its completion. There are more than forty governments in various countries which are associated with use of function point analysis and include the following: England, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Canada, India, United States of America, Korea, Mexico, Colombia, Netherlands and Argentina (Wiegers, & Beatty, 2013).
Vendors always try to calculate software project in terms of size, cost and cost estimation in order to understand what will be required during the entire process of the project. The software project size is the major input factor which is used to determine what will be essential in accomplishing and implementing the project (Ochodek, Nawrocki, & Kwarciak, 2011). The size of the project is considered as a significant cost driver used in the process of carrying out the software project. The main focus during cost approximation of the software project is based on the effort hours which will be used by the team. This is significant in that the effort hours of the people will usually determine the entire costs of the software project.
Although there are also other charges which are required like infrastructure, workplaces and licences, all these other costs do not determine the size of the software project. They can also be computed in a simpler way hence the importance of the effort hours (Zheng, Wang, Zheng, & Shi, 2009). Cost estimation therefore is used to approximate the complete cost required in completion of the entire project in which it gives the estimate involved in monetary costs. The cost estimate of the software project is thus used to permit the budget and administer all the costs of the project. Cost per FP- cost per function point is the number of hours a person can do to provide one unit of (IFPUG), International Function Point Analysis Group function point. The cost per function point ranges between eight to eleven hours and costs around sixty to one hundred and five US dollars (Wiegers, & Beatty, 2013). The cost price determines the choice of system the enterprise will choose to be in a position to budget and afford it for the completion of the software project.
Function Point Analysis (FPA) and Cost Estimation
(FPA), Function Point Analysis gives rules which are used to functionally classify the software project work product. The work product is the beginning stages and output of new software development and all other subsequent projects involved for the coming results. Work product is therefore the software that is moved to the production administration during the software project application (Di Martino, Ferrucci, Gravino, & Sarro, 2016). Function Point Analysis is therefore a method used to determine the functional measurement size of the project as it evaluates the functionality provided to the users which is based on the outside perspective of functional necessities. Function Point Analysis helps in giving accurate estimation in that it measures the business transactions and data which will be used by the software project and aids in budgeting the cost of the project. This is important to estimate the cost of the project to enable good plan and implementation of the project to be achieved without failures. FPA was firstly used by Allan Albrecht who developed it in 1970s while at (IBM), International Business Machine and from then it has been used by software engineers in wide range of software project environments (Jeng, Yeh, Wang, Chu, & Chen, 2011). It has been applicable and of great use in estimating, determining quality and project management where it has become mostly used in measuring these activities. Several governments have adopted function point analysis in selecting tenderers in different departments in the government. The Australian government has recommended this policy in controlling government projects in the way tenders are given which is based on an established cost in terms of dollars per function point (Laudon, & Laudon, 2015). This has helped the government in issuing of tenders and determining the right tenderer to be awarded the given project.
A (FP), Function Point is a constituent of software project development which is used to demonstrate the functionality and aids in estimating the cost in the project development process. It is therefore a procedure that interprets the necessary functions and their problems in a given software project to approximate its size and the range on completion. The system can be part of the functional points in that it computes the size of the software project together with the design and execution of functions outlined by the user stipulations (Maya, Abran, Oligny, St-Pierre, & Desharnais, 2017). Each user requirement is a function point since it is calculated according to user demands and determines the functionality of the business of the software project application. Function point is a component of measurement used to determine the functionality of business in the software project. Business user requirements are the needs of the user which are required in the system of the software project like activities the user should perform.
Functional Classification of Work Product
Business user requirements are usually determined by the user who signs and then used as the key input during development of the software project. The function points are used to calculate the (FSM), functional size measurement of the software project where the cost of a unit is computed from the old similar projects (Abran, Desharnais, & Aziz, 2016). Business user requirements can be converted into function points in that they are used hand in hand in development of the software project in order to meet user needs in performing the required tasks. Therefore they are all used together for the implementation of the given project where function points determine the functionality and business user requirements regulate how the project will be developed.
The cost of point function which can either be in dollars or effort hours of one unit is computed from the past projects which shows how the project was developed and implemented to completion. With this knowledge of previous project, it becomes easy to calculate the business functionality the information system of the project will give to the user. Function points are broadly accepted as the standard measure of functional size and there are various specifications used to estimate them (Engelhart, & Langbroek, 2009). There are software engineering standards used for measurement of function point identified as COSMIC, information technology measurement method by the name FiSMA which have been used in estimation of function points. These methods are accepted to give accurate estimation since they have been certified by (ISO), International Organization for Standardization.
There are three main software requirements necessary in conducting function point analysis. Firstly, there are functional user requirements which are usually the functions of the user which the software project is mandated to perform. This is software which includes elementary procedures which must be reinforced to manipulate, process, interface data inside, to and from the software (Meredith, & Mantel Jr., 2011). All these are addressed by the function point analysis. Secondly, there are nonfictional user requirements which are based on technology or business/user limitations. The software project must meet these requirements which include performance and quality needs like usability, portability, speed and reliability. Thirdly, there is technical requirements which are user needs for a certain software on how it is to be configured or delivery of a technical arrangement. Function point analysis does not state this requirement despite it being significant like the other two kinds.
Function point analysis can be used in cost estimation of the software project. It is broadly used in software project cost approximation where it is more effective compared to other methods (Laudon, & Laudon, 2015). However, when part of the function point analysis is adjusted from a given study field, the model becomes less helpful. It is therefore recommended to use function point analysis without making adjustments from the field study where it is more useful to the software project.
Functionality of Business and Business User Requirements
The current software systems have become expensive due to the rising software prices. The different kinds of applications used in software project or in an organization require money in developing, subscribing or even getting licences for its operation. This becomes expensive but it is vital for the company to ensure work is done effectively. Most of the software project or institutions spend large sums of money in terms of information technology budget (Wiegers, & Beatty, 2013). There are also challenges and threats associated with digital business and this demand for more software which at the long run ends up consuming large amounts of money. Therefore, cost of software systems has become expensive in the modern world.
From the analysis, it is noted that the cost measure determine the choice of software system for an enterprise since the (TCO), total cost of ownership sums all the cost of a given software system. The enterprise will then consider the startup charges which are the costs the organization incurs during putting a new system of software into production. There are also operational costs which are experienced when the system is in production and retirement costs attracted when the software system is retiring. All these costs determine the software system of an enterprise to ensure it is able to maintain it for the system to be operational all through for effective production.
References
Abran, A., Desharnais, J. M., & Aziz, F. (2016). 3.5 Measurement Convertibility—From Function Points to COSMIC FFP. Cosmic Function Points: Theory and Advanced Practices, 214.
Di Martino, S., Ferrucci, F., Gravino, C., & Sarro, F. (2016). Web effort estimation: function point analysis vs. COSMIC. Information and Software Technology, 72, 90-109.
Engelhart, J., & Langbroek, P. (2009). Function point analysis (FPA) for software enhancement. Nesma.
Jeng, B., Yeh, D., Wang, D., Chu, S. L., & Chen, C. M. (2011). A specific effort estimation method using function point. Journal of information science and engineering, 27(4), 1363-1376.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management information systems (Vol. 8). Prentice Hall.
Maya, M., Abran, A., Oligny, S., St-Pierre, D., & Desharnais, J. M. (2017). Measuring the functional size of real-time software. In Proc. of European Software Control and Metrics Conference, Maastricht, The Netherlands (pp. 191-199).
Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Ochodek, M., Nawrocki, J., & Kwarciak, K. (2011). Simplifying effort estimation based on Use Case Points. Information and Software Technology, 53(3), 200-213.
Wiegers, K., & Beatty, J. (2013). Software requirements. Pearson Education.
Zheng, Y., Wang, B., Zheng, Y., & Shi, L. (2009, July). Estimation of software projects effort based on function point. In Computer Science & Education, 2009. ICCSE’09. 4th International Conference on (pp. 941-943). IEEE.
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