Customer Reviews

Measuring The Software Process: A Practical Guide to Functional Measurements

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The book is a great asset to those who want to learn and apply FPA method. I am amazed how well the authors have covered almost all aspects of FPA in this rather small volume. With this book, I hardly needed to resort to other references for counting function points in small and medium sized applications. Very well written book. I wish the authors consider a new addition in light of rather recent developments at IFPUG.

This book was written almost five years to the day before the authors' later "Function Point Analysis: Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects". It provides the foundation for the later book with a significant amount of overlap, but with some key differences as well.

The theme of both books is function point analysis as a software estimating technique. The focus of this book, however, is FP counting and analysis techniques with an emphasis on software engineering as a coherent process. The material is more geared towards introducing FP and making a business and technical case for using this technique. In my experience FP is most effective when used to estimate the scale of a software development project, while the traditional lines of source code metric is better suited to estimating size. Each has a place in an integrated approach to estimation, but this book is solely focused on FP.

If you want a higher level view of FP because you're exploring it as an estimating technique this book is ideal. It covers the reasons for, and philosophy behind, FP, and also goes into considerable detail. However, if you have standardized on FP as an estimating technique I think the later book, "Function Point Analysis: Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects", will better meet your needs because it goes into much deeper detail and can serve as a desk reference. Both books have a place in the body of knowledge for software metrics and estimating, and both will be valid for years to come.