A FUNCTIONAL SIZE MEASUREMENT METHOD FOR EVENT-BASED OBJECT-ORIENTED ENTERPRISE MODELS

Poels, G.

The effective management of IS-related processes requires measuring the functional size of information
systems. Functional size measurement is usually performed using the Function Points Analysis method.
Earlier attempts to apply Function Point counting rules to object-oriented systems met with serious
problems because the implicit model of functional user requirements in Function Points Analysis is hard to
reconcile with the object-oriented paradigm. The emergence of a new generation of functional size
measurement methods has changed this picture. The main implementation of this generation, COSMIC Full
Function Points, explicitly defines a generic model of functional user requirements onto which artifacts
belonging to any IS specification or engineering methodology can be mapped. In this paper we present
specific COSMIC-FFP mapping rules for methodologies that take an event-based approach to information
system engineering. In particular we show that the event-oriented nature of the COSMIC-FFP measurement
rules provides for a natural mapping of concepts. To illustrate the mapping rules we use MERODE, a
formal event-based object-oriented methodology for systems development in information processing
intensive domains. The mapping rules presented are confined to the enterprise layer in a MERODE IS
architecture.

Publishing date
01-01-2000
Download option
Allow direct download

Download