Improving Reproducibility whilst Maintaining Accuracy in Function Point Analysis

Abstract

Existing proposals to improve the measurement reproducibility of Function Point Analysis (FPA) oversimplify its standard rules, threatening its measurement accuracy. We introduce a new artifact called Function Point Tree (FPT), which allows for full data collection required to count function points, reducing the experts’ personal interpretation and thus the size variation. The new measurement method, called FPT-based FPA (FPT-FPA), enlarges FPA standardization and systematization. Using this method allows to improve measurement reproducibility whilst maintaining its accuracy. Preliminary results of an empirical study show coefficients of variation for FTP-FPA lower than the maximum expected for both reproducibility and accuracy for some scenarios.