Software size estimation has been long a challenging task over a software development process. This paper presents an approach that uses the function point analysis to estimate program coding and testing effort in a MIS department, which maintains an ERP system with low employee transfer rate. The method first analyzes the historical data using regression analysis, and then builds a software estimation model with elaborated coefficients for related parameters. The estimation model is tested with the remaining set of historical data to evaluate its predict accuracy. It is shown that the size estimation model can be as accurate as about 90% correctness. Thus it is useful not only in company-wide information resource allocation, but also in performance evaluation of software engineers.

Software cost estimation is essential for software companies to be more competitive and more profitable. The objective of this thesis is to study current software size estimation practices adopted by Turkish software companies, to identify best prac-tices, and to suggest appropriate methods that can help companies to reduce errors in their software size estimations.

Functional size is among the few software size measures for which well-structured and standardized methods exists for its measurement. Although Functional Size Measurement(FSM) methods have gone a long way, one ongoing criticism on FSM methods is the discrepancies in the measurement results of the same software obtained by different measures. In this thesis study the sources of discrepancies that involve the functional properties of measurands and constructs of the FSM method models are investigated in two exploratory case studies. In the light of the findings, a software functionality model for functional size measurement is proposed. The model is founded on a characterization of software functionality from a requirements engineering point of view and it aims is to facilitate reliable size measurements on the basis of formalized concepts and rules. Two case studies are conducted in order to evaluate the applicability of the model and validate its effectiveness.

This thesis study aims to examine the conceptual and theoretical differences of Functional Size Measurement (FSM) methods, to identify the improvement opportunities of these methods and to develop a new FSM method. A comprehensive literature review is performed and two multiple-case studies are conducted as a research strategy. In the light of the results obtained, some improvement suggestions on two of the most challenging improvement opportunities identified for FSM methods are made &ndash / improvement opportunities which are related to the conceptual and theoretical basis of FSM and the extension of the applicability of these methods to different software functional domain types. The work behind these suggestions involves the critical examination of the concepts &ldquo / functionality&rdquo / and &ldquo / functional size&rdquo / and the depiction of &ldquo / types of functionality&rdquo / considering the components of software architecture and the forms of information processing logic performed in different software functional domain types. Based on the suggestions made, a new FSM method, called ARCHItectural DIMensions Based FSM (ARCHI-DIM) is developed conforming to the ISO/IEC 14143-1 standard. A third multiple-case study is conducted in order to evaluate the new method and to identify future directions for FSM methods.

La nécessité d'estimer la taille d’un logiciel pour pouvoir en estimer le coût et l’effort nécessaire à son développement est une conséquence de l'utilisation croissante des logiciels dans presque toutes les activités humaines. De plus, la nature compétitive de l’industrie du développement logiciel rend courante l’utilisation d’estimations précises de leur taille, au plus tôt dans le processus de développement. Traditionnellement, l’estimation de la taille des logiciels était accomplie a posteriori à partir de diverses mesures appliquées au code source. Cependant, avec la prise de conscience, par la communauté de l’ingénierie logicielle, que l’estimation de la taille du code est une donnée cruciale pour la maîtrise du développement et des coûts, l’estimation anticipée de la taille des logiciels est devenue une préoccupation répandue. Une fois le code écrit, l’estimation de sa taille et de son coût permettent d'effectuer des études contrastives et éventuellement de contrôler la productivité. D’autre part, les bénéfices apportés par l'estimation de la taille sont d'autant plus grands que cette estimation est effectuée tôt pendant le développement. En outre, si l’estimation de la taille peut être effectuée périodiquement au fur et à mesure de la progression de la conception et du développement, elle peut fournir des informations précieuses aux gestionnaires du projet pour suivre au mieux la progression du développement et affiner en conséquence l'allocation des ressources. Notre recherche se positionne autour des mesures d’estimation de la taille fonctionnelle, couramment appelées Analyse des Points de Fonctions, qui permettent d’estimer la taille d’un logiciel à partir des fonctionnalités qu’il doit fournir à l’utilisateur final, exprimées uniquement selon son point de vue, en excluant en particulier toute considération propre au développement. Un problème significatif de l'utilisation des points de fonction est le besoin d'avoir recours à des experts humains pour effectuer la quotation selon un ensemble de règles de comptage. Le processus d'estimation représente donc une charge de travail conséquente et un coût important. D'autre part, le fait que les règles de comptage des points de fonction impliquent nécessairement une part d'interprétation humaine introduit un facteur d'imprécision dans les estimations et rend plus difficile la reproductibilité des mesures. Actuellement, le processus d'estimation est entièrement manuel et contraint les experts humains à lire en détails l'intégralité des spécifications, une tâche longue et fastidieuse. Nous proposons de fournir aux experts humains une aide automatique dans le processus d'estimation, en identifiant dans le texte des spécifications, les endroits les plus à même de contenir des points de fonction. Cette aide automatique devrait permettre une réduction significative du temps de lecture et de réduire le coût de l'estimation, sans perte de précision. Enfin, l’identification non ambiguë des points de fonction permettra de faciliter et d'améliorer la reproductibilité des mesures. À notre connaissance, les travaux présentés dans cette thèse sont les premiers à se baser uniquement sur l’analyse du contenu textuel des spécifications, applicable dès la mise à disposition des spécifications préliminaires et en se basant sur une approche générique reposant sur des pratiques établies d'analyse automatique du langage naturel. / The inevitable emergence of the necessity to estimate the size of a software thus estimating the probable cost and effort is a direct outcome of increasing need of complex and large software in almost every conceivable situation. Furthermore, due to the competitive nature of the software development industry, the increasing reliance on accurate size estimation at early stages of software development becoming a commonplace practice. Traditionally, estimation of software was performed a posteriori from the resultant source code and several metrics were in practice for the task. However, along with the understanding of the importance of code size estimation in the software engineering community, the realization of early stage software size estimation, became a mainstream concern. Once the code has been written, size and cost estimation primarily provides contrastive study and possibly productivity monitoring. On the other hand, if size estimation can be performed at an early development stage (the earlier the better), the benefits are virtually endless. The most important goals of the financial and management aspect of software development namely development cost and effort estimation can be performed even before the first line of code is being conceived. Furthermore, if size estimation can be performed periodically as the design and development progresses, it can provide valuable information to project managers in terms of progress, resource allocation and expectation management. This research focuses on functional size estimation metrics commonly known as Function Point Analysis (FPA) that estimates the size of a software in terms of the functionalities it is expected to deliver from a user’s point of view. One significant problem with FPA is the requirement of human counters, who need to follow a set of standard counting rules, making the process labour and cost intensive (the process is called Function Point Counting and the professional, either analysts or counters). Moreover, these rules, in many occasion, are open to interpretation, thus they often produce inconsistent counts. Furthermore, the process is entirely manual and requires Function Point (FP) counters to read large specification documents, making it a rather slow process. Some level of automation in the process can make a significant difference in the current counting practice. Automation of the process of identifying the FPs in a document accurately, will at least reduce the reading requirement of the counters, making the process faster and thus shall significantly reduce the cost. Moreover, consistent identification of FPs will allow the production of consistent raw function point counts. To the best of our knowledge, the works presented in this thesis is an unique attempt to analyse specification documents from early stages of the software development, using a generic approach adapted from well established Natural Language Processing (NLP) practices.

Kad sugebėtume efektyviai valdyti programinės įrangos kūrimą, mes turime sugebėti matuoti programinę įrangą. Alan Albrecht 1979 metais IBM korporacijoje pasiūlė naudoti funkcinių taškų analizės metodą. Šis metodas matuoja programinės įrangos naudotojui suteikiamą funkcionalumą ir yra nepriklausomas nuo naudojamų programinės įrangos kūrimo technologijų. Šiuo metu yra jau 5 standartizuoti funkcinių taškų analizės metodai, kurie naudoja skirtingas taisykles programinės įrangos dydžio matavimui. Šiame darbe yra apibrėžiami vertinimo kriterijai ir pagal juos lyginami standartizuoti IFPUG, Mark II, COSMIC, NESMA ir FiSMA funkcinių taškų analizės metodai. Lyginant metodus yra nagrinėjami jų koncepciniai panašumai ir skirtumai, standartizuotumas, industrinių duomenų prieinamumas, konvertuojamumas, tinkamiausia taikymo fazė, matavimo taisyklių subjektyvumas, nefunkcinių naudotojų reikalavimų vertinimas, sertifikavimo ir skaičiavimo vadovų prieinamumas, metodus palaikantys programiniai įrankiai bei metodų taikymo sritis. Analizės rezultatai parodo, kad šiuo metu geriausia yra pasirinkti IFPUG arba COSMIC metodus. / To effectively manage software development we must be able to measure software. Alan Albrecht in IBM Corporation in 1979 proposed the use of function point analysis method. This method measures functionality provided to the user by the software and is independent of the used software development technology. There are currently 5 standardized function point analysis methods, which use different rules for software size measurement. In this work estimation criteria are defined and used to compare standardized IFPUG, Mark II, COSMIC, NESMA and FiSMA function point analysis methods. During the comparison of methods their conceptual similarities and differences, standardization, availability of industry data, convertibility, the most suitable usage phase, subjectivity of measurement rules, estimation of non-functional user requirements, availability of certification and counting practices manuals, supporting software tools and the scope of methods applicability are examined. The analysis results show that the best choice is IFPUG or COSMIC methods.

The first part of this work is about history of infusion technology, specially about recent developments in electronic infusion devices. Then, there are described basic principles of infusion pumps and syringe pumps. The second part introduces safety features of infusion technology. An occlusion alarm is one of them. There is described a method of measurement that verifies the functionality of this alarm in two instruments of different producers with various settings. Data obtained by this method are statistically processed and the results discussed.