An overview of COSMIC-FFP field trial results

Abran A., Symons C., Oligny S.

The Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC) was formed in 1998
to design and bring to market a new generation of software measurement methods. The COSMIC
group reviewed existing functional size measurement methods, studied their commonalities, and
proposed the basic principles on which a new generation of software functional size measurement
methods could be based. In November of 1999, the group published version 2.0 of COSMIC-FFP,
a measurement method implementing these principles, and put its measurement manual on the Web
for public access. Over the past year, industrial organizations have contributed data in the
context of COSMIC field trials. This report present an overview of the field trial results, including
an analysis of the relationship of effort with respect to the software functional size, measured in
COSMIC-FFP size units. The data set is described, as well as the constraints for the
interpretation of the results.