A Comparative Study of the Reliability of Function Point Analysis in Software Development Effort Estimation Models

Abstract

The Air Force of the 1990's is steadily growing more reliant on software systems. However, the struggle to develop reliable cost and effort estimation tools continues. The Standard Systems Center (SSC), Gunter AFB AL, has adopted the use of Function Point Analysis to improve estimation of data processing, management and communication systems. Function point analysis was introduced by IBM's Alan Albrecht in 1979 as an alternative to source line of code (SLOC) as a size and productivity measure. In 1991, Tecelote Research, Inc. , under contract to the SSC, delivered the Software Program Acquisition Network Simulation (SPANS) model incorporating the capability to perform estimates using function point measures. This research examines the ability of SPANS to reliably and accurately estimate software project effort with function points. A further investigation compares the predictions derived by SPANS with two other software estimation tools, Checkpoint and Costar.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1990
Accession Number
ADA244179

Entities

People

  • Robert B. Gurner

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Communication Systems
  • Computer Programs
  • Contracts
  • Data Processing
  • Data Science
  • Databases
  • Engineering
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Network Simulation
  • Simulations
  • Software Development
  • Software Metrics
  • Statistical Analysis

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Approximation Theory.
  • Research Science/Academic Research
  • Strategic Security Studies