On the compatibility between full function points and IFPUG function points
S. Oligny, Alain Abran · 1999
Release 1.0 of the Full Function Points measurement method was proposed in 1997 to measure the functional size of real-time or embedded software. Since then, field tests have shown the applicability and usefulness of this measurement method not only for real-time or embedded software, but also for other types of software like system software and MIS software. This paper investigates the issue of measurement compatibility between the designs of both the FFP and IFPUG measurement methods. Such compatibility is required to perform mathematical operations involving results from both methods and mixing them into a single functional size measure. The compatibility of both measurement objects and measurement processes is analyzed and the accuracy of their aggregation function is identified as being dependent on the level of granularity at which the measurement functions are applied. Comparing the two approaches, we find that the precision of this aggregation function corresponds to the lowest common denominator of the two approaches.