Function Points

All people are obliged to struggle with numerous problems. Some of them are easy to solve, and some truly are difficult. What is the thing that differentiates easy problems from the difficult ones? Usually, the more complex a problem is, the more time and effort we need to solve it. And so is with measuring applications.

The term "function points" isn't new. In point of fact, the idea was introduced in 1979, by IBM specialist A. J. Albrecht. And even though the invention belonged to the "Big Blue", they decided to share it with other companies, what let function points become the most commonly used application metric, these days. The popularity of FP method has resulted in a need for settling an organization to take care about the standardization - International Function Point Users Group (IFBUG) is responsible not only for standardization, but also for developing and spreading the idea of FP.

The Function Points Method increases its popularity, but the fact is it still is quite time-consuming. Whether it's profitable to perform the analysis, depends on the situation. There are situations which FPA could be provided and bring measurable profits in, and there are situations which FPA is only a time wasting in.

• A function can be defined as a collection of executabla statements that performs a certain task, together with declarations of the formal parameters and local variables  manipulated by those statements.
• FP technique doesn’t measure functions explicitly.
• Able and there used to measure full software lifecycle including project management,requirements, design,coding, testing, user documentation and maintenance.
• International standards group –International Function Point Users Group – www.ifpug.org
• Independent of lines of code so function points for the total,for two diffrent languages would be the same

The Function Points Analysis Method is one of the most common methods for measuring the applications these days, therefore it's not easy to answer the question when and how to perform it. Instead, it's better to point out a few situations which FPA wouldn't work as supposed at. Basically, FPA isn't ordered for measuring the smallest applications - whole method still is not as accurate as it should, therefore - in case of such applications - the results could differ meaningfully from the facts. Then, the automation of evaluating each component's complexity still works not the way it should, therefore people still are obliged to do it on their own - it significantly lengthens the whole process.

In the IFPUG Function Point Analysis:

• The system’s functionality is decomposed into components of inputs, outputs, external interface files (maintained by another system), internal data files (maintained by this system), and inquires.
• Each component’s difficulty is rated as simple, avarage, or complex.
• A complexity rating is given to each component based on it’s type and difficulty.
• The unadjusted function points (UFPs) are counted by summing all of the complexity ratings