Improvements to the Function Point Analysis Method: A Systematic Literature Review

Function point analysis (FPA) is a standardized method to systematically measure the functional size of software. This method is proposed by an international organization and it is currently recommended by governments and organizations as a standard method to be adopted for this type of measurement....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on engineering management 2015-11, Vol.62 (4), p.495-506
Main Authors: de Freitas Junior, Marcos, Fantinato, Marcelo, Sun, Violeta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Accuracy improvement
Artificial intelligence
Business metrics
Complexity theory
Computer programs
function point analysis (FPA)
Function points
Governments
Information systems
ISO Standards
Literature reviews
Mathematical analysis
Organizations
Software
Software measurement
Studies
systematic literature review (SLR)
Systematic review
Technology standards
Transaction processing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Function point analysis (FPA) is a standardized method to systematically measure the functional size of software. This method is proposed by an international organization and it is currently recommended by governments and organizations as a standard method to be adopted for this type of measurement. This paper presents a compilation of improvements, focused on increasing the accuracy of the FPA method, which have been proposed over the past 13 years. The methodology used was a systematic literature review (SLR), which was conducted with four research questions aligned with the objectives of this study. As a result of the SLR, of the 1600 results returned by the search engines, 454 primary studies were preselected according to the criteria established for the SLR. Among these studies, only 18 specifically referred to accuracy improvements for FPA, which was the goal of this study. The low number of studies that propose FPA improvements might demonstrate the maturity of the method in the current scenario of software metrics. Specifically in terms of found issues, it was found that the step for calculating the functional size exhibited the highest number of problems, indicating the need to revise FPA in order to encompass the possible improvements suggested by the researchers.
ISSN:0018-9391
1558-0040
DOI:10.1109/TEM.2015.2453354