FP Outline - Estimating Project and Application Size

Update

FP Ouline is no longer externally available. It is now used internally by Total Metrics' consulting.

Quick and Easy Function Point sizes

Using the quick Function Point Counting Wizard

FP Outline^® is the latest software utility from Total Metrics suite of tools and services supporting Functional Size Measurement. The software provides the expertise to quickly determine the size of a project or the application portfolio in minutes rather than days, weeks or months consumed using traditional IFPUG counting methods.

When could you use FP Outline^®?

Early quick sizing has many uses, but we have found it particularly useful in the following situations:

• Early project estimation –quickly determine the project’s functional size, even before specifications are completed, then apply the productivity coefficients to estimate effort, cost and duration.
• Outsourcing Contract Negotiation – establish the functional size of an organisations software to be maintained by the supplier at due diligence stage
• Value your software assets – establish the functional size of an organisations software to determine its replacement cost for asset valuation and accounting purposes
• Budget approvals – use the functional size and projected productivity rates to verify your estimates for management budget approvals.
• Benchmarking – establish the functional size of an organisations projects and applications for quick determination of product quality and development and support efficiency and effectiveness.
• Release Management– establish the functional size of a change request to determine if it is possible to include in the planned release.
• Get quick ballpark figure for your functional size and then…. when time, budgets and priorities permit, do detailed function point counting using SCOPE Project Sizing Software^® to develop detailed IFPUG 4.2 compliant counts to verify your estimates and manage project scope. Both products are fully integrated so that all your estimates and actual counts are recorded in the same database.

How does FP Outline^® work?

FP Outline^® uses a series of algorithms derived from thousands of projects and applications counted over the last 14 years by IFPUG certified counters. The algorithms are based on over 40 relationships derived between known project and application attributes and the measured functional size. Many of these relationships are between the physical aspects of the project that are easily measured, and the logical functional size. All you have to be able to provide data on the ‘physical measures’ which in most cases are easy to collect, then FP Outline^® does the rest.

For example there is a very predictive relationship between the number of pages of a functional specification and the function point count for a project. This makes sense when you consider that all functionality that is ‘counted’ must be specified, the more functionality delivered by the project the more pages of specification. Just count the pages of specification!

This is just one relationship that forms the basis for the 20 questions asked by FP Outline^® to ‘predict’ the size of your project or application.

FP Outline^® reports the approximate size in function points with an appraisal of the level of confidence that FP Outline^® had in determining the answer. The accuracy of the predicted size will depend on which questions you answer, and the accuracy to which you answer them. Our users are amazed at its predictive ability when they compare the size calculated by FP Outline^® the actual measured size using the IFPUG 4.2 methodology.

How accurate are the size predictions?

Total Metrics has been using the methodology underpinning FP Outline^® for over 14 years and has been able to demonstrate its accuracy, in both project (new development and enhancement) and application baseline counts for over 2000 applications and projects world wide.

Actual Case Study:

A large Telecommunications company, planning to outsource the maintenance of a set of 45 applications needed to urgently provide the functional size of their portfolio to the prospective supplier. Total Metrics took 6 effort days using the FP Outline^® methodology to establish the applications portfolio size at 30,710 UFPs. The predicted size was later verified using the IFPUG 4.2 methodology and consumed 122 effort days to count. The actual measured size (25,326 ufps) was only -17.53% different to the predicted size. Our predictions tend to typically lie within a +/-15% range.