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Function Points - Who Needs Them?
Functional Sizing and Function Points - used both
alone and with other metrics - can deliver an astonishing amount of useful
information to all levels of your organisation about your software
management and software delivery processes.
Here are some ways in which Function Points can be
used.
Use Function Points to:
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Benchmark your software
delivery. Measure and compare the different rates and costs
of delivery for software development, enhancement and package
installation for your various platforms. Use these for evaluating
alternate approaches, developing project estimates or validating
external estimates.
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Monitor the effectiveness of your software delivery strategies.
Analyse the
trends in your delivery rates against your different platforms, methodologies,
tools and techniques.
Determine the current investment in technologies across your application
systems. Profile, for example, languages employed against system size and use
this to refine perspective on resource skills needed to support your current
software.
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Uncover 'hidden
functionality' in your projects early in the life cycle. Use
the discipline of the sizing process to establish project scope
unambiguously so that estimates can be based on better information.
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Assess project risk.
Compare overall project size with industry tables showing risk of
project failure associated with size. Evaluate project risk in terms of
the level of confidence you have in your understanding of project
requirements.
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Monitor and control 'creeping functionality' in your software projects.
Assess
function point size as often as you wish during the project and especially
during feasibility study, after the requirements definition and after design
specification. Use any change in 'project size' to support the review of
resource allocation and delivery dates.
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Assess the quality of your delivered software.
Record trends in the number of
software 'bugs' per function point delivered to the user to give an overall
evaluation of your software quality.
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Appraise the effectiveness of your software support strategies.
Plot support
resources against system size and compare with industry achievements. Abnormally
high support resources may indicate the need for rework, restructuring or
redevelopment.
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Assess value of purchased software. Compare cost per function point of
purchased software against development costs to determine most cost effective
strategy.
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Contact CHARISMATEK Software
Metrics to discuss how Functional
Sizing and the Function Point
WORKBENCH™ software tool can assist you with quantitative data for input
to your IT Business Decisions. |
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