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Front. Inform. Technol. Electron. Eng.  2014, Vol. 15 Issue (3): 161-173    DOI: 10.1631/jzus.C1300102
    
An experimental study on the conversion between IFPUG and UCP functional size measurement units
Juan J. Cuadrado-Gallego, Alain Abran, Pablo Rodriguez-Soria, Miguel A. Lara
Ecole de Technologie Superieure - ETS 1100 Notre-Dame Ouest, Montreal QC H3C 1K3, Canada; Computer Science Department, University of Alcala, Madrid 28805, Spain
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Abstract  The use of functional size measurement (FSM) methods in software development organizations is growing during the years. Also, object oriented (OO) techniques have become quite a standard to design the software and, in particular, Use Cases is one of the most used techniques to specify functional requirements. Main FSM methods do not include specific rules to measure the software functionality from its Use Cases analysis. To deal with this issue some other methods like Kramer’s functional measurement method have been developed. Therefore, one of the main issues for those organizations willing to use OO functional measurement method in order to facilitate the use cases count procedure is how to convert their portfolio functional size from the previously adopted FSM method towards the new method. The objective of this research is to find a statistical relationship for converting the software functional size units measured by the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) function point analysis (FPA) method into Kramer-Smith’s use cases points (UCP) method and vice versa. Methodologies for a correct data gathering are proposed and results obtained are analyzed to draw the linear and non-linear equations for this correlation. Finally, a conversion factor and corresponding conversion intervals are given to establish the statistical relationship.

Key wordsSoftware engineering      Requirements analysis      Functional size measurement      Use cases analysis      Object oriented      Function point analysis      Use cases points     
Received: 20 April 2013      Published: 05 March 2014
CLC:  TP311  
Cite this article:

Juan J. Cuadrado-Gallego, Alain Abran, Pablo Rodriguez-Soria, Miguel A. Lara. An experimental study on the conversion between IFPUG and UCP functional size measurement units. Front. Inform. Technol. Electron. Eng., 2014, 15(3): 161-173.

URL:

http://www.zjujournals.com/xueshu/fitee/10.1631/jzus.C1300102     OR     http://www.zjujournals.com/xueshu/fitee/Y2014/V15/I3/161


An experimental study on the conversion between IFPUG and UCP functional size measurement units

The use of functional size measurement (FSM) methods in software development organizations is growing during the years. Also, object oriented (OO) techniques have become quite a standard to design the software and, in particular, Use Cases is one of the most used techniques to specify functional requirements. Main FSM methods do not include specific rules to measure the software functionality from its Use Cases analysis. To deal with this issue some other methods like Kramer’s functional measurement method have been developed. Therefore, one of the main issues for those organizations willing to use OO functional measurement method in order to facilitate the use cases count procedure is how to convert their portfolio functional size from the previously adopted FSM method towards the new method. The objective of this research is to find a statistical relationship for converting the software functional size units measured by the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) function point analysis (FPA) method into Kramer-Smith’s use cases points (UCP) method and vice versa. Methodologies for a correct data gathering are proposed and results obtained are analyzed to draw the linear and non-linear equations for this correlation. Finally, a conversion factor and corresponding conversion intervals are given to establish the statistical relationship.

关键词: Software engineering,  Requirements analysis,  Functional size measurement,  Use cases analysis,  Object oriented,  Function point analysis,  Use cases points 
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