Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!jon
From: jon@june.cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: References on Function Points metric sought
Keywords: Function Points, metrics, cost estimation, project management
Message-ID: <6360@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 88 16:41:52 GMT
Organization: U of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 19

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