Using Productivity Measure and Function Points to Improve the Software Development Process

摘要

Usually, cost and time estimations are done at the beginning of a software project for budget planning purposes. Such estimations are used at the end of the project to verify if the initial planning was followed or if there were any deviations. In this sense, these estimations can only be used as an input to improve the process for other projects. This paper presents an iterative method, which uses productivity and function points metrics, to identify possible deviations in the amount of time and effort needed to carry out the process tasks, thus continuously updating the estimations in order to cope with the current project needs. It is presented a real case study of how this process can be applied.