A Foundation for Estimation:
Functional Size Measures and Their Entry into the 21st Century

 

DATE: Thursday May 18, 2000
PLACE: Sheraton Hotel, Rideau Room 150 Albert Street, Ottawa

SPEAKER: Dr. Alain Abran

Functional size measures were introduced in the late 70's to improve productivity analysis and software project estimation. It was then a key innovation in software measurement, but what about the software of today?

  • Such measures have large name recognition, but a small market share. Why?
  • Developed on the basis of 22 MIS projects from the mid 70's, how does the Albrecht method stand up in 2000?
  • What attempts have been made to improve functional size methods as measurement instruments?

What is ISO doing about it?

What are the international experts doing about it?

  • COSMIC: Common Software Measurement International Consortium

OSMIC-FFP: the first of a second generation of size measurement methods

  • What is this new entrant in the market place?
  • Where is it coming from and where is it going?
  • How do I learn about it and how can I get support?

Dr. Abran will present his views on these questions and then open the floor for discussion.

Who should attend this event: Software project estimators, software process improvement specialists, software quality specialists, software measurement specialists, software project managers.

Dr. Abran is the director of the Research Lab. in Software Engineering Management and a professor at Université du Québec à Montréal where he teaches graduate courses in software engineering. Dr. Abran has over 20 years of industry experience in information systems development and software engineering. Dr. Abran completed in 1994 the first PhD on Function Points, and he has since written extensively on functional size measurement. He is currently a co-author of the Full Function Points method and the co-leader of the Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC), a group of international experts from eight countries. Dr. Abran is also on the board on the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) based in Australia.

Dr. Abran holds master degrees in Management Sciences (1974) and Electrical Engineering (1975) from University of Ottawa, and a Ph.D in Software Engineering (1994) from École Polytechnique de Montréal (Canada)