Automated Function Points Sizing

Software Sizing – Automated

Function points are the best known means of sizing software.  Knowing the size of your software is crucial to effective management of it.  Whether you are considering maintenance, new developments, enhancements, insourcing or outsourcing.  Effective software management is made so much easier if you have a consistent reliable measure of size.  This is the problem that ScopeMaster resolves.

Functional Intent Detected

ScopeMaster examines the phraseology of all written user stories or requirements in order to determine the functional intent.  It does this faster than humans can typically read the requirements.   What it exposes is an interpretation of the functionality described in the user story.  Whilst not the only interpretation, it is the most likely one.

Consistent and Reliable

ScopeMaster’s analyser generates consistent sizing results.  With the same text input, it will always give the same result.  This consistency is essential.

From Text to Function Points

ScopeMaster runs layers of successive analysis in order to determine the functional size from the functional intent.  The functional size results are available as COSMIC Function Points, or as IFPUG Function Points.  (The former is more accurate).

Technology Agnostic

The functional size of the software is a user oriented perspective.  It is agnostic of the implementation or technology used to achieve the functionality.

Estimates the Ambiguous Requirements

Some requirements use ambiguous language, language that does not have clear functional meaning.  ScopeMaster attributes and estimated size to those ambiguous requirements.

Estimates the Missing Requirements

ScopeMaster® examines the set of requirements looking for potential duplicates and missing requirements.  It is able to automatically estimate the number and size of the missing requirements, so you know how big your project is likely to be.

About Sizing Software

There are numerous approaches to sizing software.  We have examined and used all of them.  But to be really useful, a sizing approach needs the following characteristics:

• Consistent
• Proven
• Suitable for all types of software
• Based on software principles
• Independently regulated
• Scrutinised, and endorsed by experts
• Matches well to effort
• Suitable for new developments, enhancements and maintenance

One approach stands out above the others as meeting the needs of any software sizing approach and that is the COSMIC Sizing methodology.  We also quite like IFPUG Function points.  Incidentally, these are the only two that are ISO standards.  Other approaches include:

• Lines of code – Inconsistent
• Gartner FFP – Proprietary
• Story Points – Inconsistent, ungoverned, gameable
• T-Shirts – Inconsistent, ungoverned, gameable
• RICEFW – Inconsistent, ungoverned, not suitable for all SW types

Recommended:  COSMIC Function Points

Automated COSMIC Sizing

ScopeMaster automatically sizes software in COSMIC Function Points.  It is typically within 15% of a manual size count.  After refinement, the estimate can become an accurate count.

Automated IFPUG FP Estimation

ScopeMaster® performs the heavy-lifting of the analysis to size a set of requirements.   It significantly accelerates the work to perform a functional size count.  For more about the IFPUG FSM see https://www.ifpug.org