A Metric of Software Size as a Tool for IT Governance

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new software size metric called Functional Elements (EF) that improves correlation with development effort and aids IT governance by enhancing assessment and monitoring of software projects.

Contribution

It presents a novel metric derived from Function Point Analysis that addresses its deficiencies and demonstrates better correlation with effort for IT governance applications.

Findings

EF metric shows higher correlation with development effort than FPA.

EF and EFt metrics effectively support IT governance tasks.

The new metric improves software size estimation accuracy.

Abstract

This paper proposes a new metric for software functional size, which is derived from Function Point Analysis (FPA), but overcomes some of its known defi- ciencies. The statistical results show that the new metric, Functional Elements (EF), and its submetric, Functional Elements of Transaction (EFt), have higher correlation with the effort in software development than FPA in the context of the analyzed data. The paper illustrates the application of the new metric as a tool to improve IT governance specifically in assessment, monitoring, and giving directions to the software development area.