Read more
The publication contains four articles, which deal with issues related to estimating functional and non-functional application sizes. In the first two articles I present my doubts about determining the uniqueness of the elementary process in the FPA method. The first article focuses on definitions in IFPUG CPM, the second in addition on definitions in the CFPS Examination Guide. The next article presents a comparison of the methods of estimating the functional size of enhancement projects, known from the literature. Enhancement projects are majority of projects, so comparison of these methods is particularly important. The last article presents a new approach to estimating non-functional application size. As both methods (FPA and SNAP) serve to evaluate software in the same application, it seems logical that they should be consistent and they are not! My idea is to solve this problem. The FPA method, based on logical decomposition of the application, is complete and will not change with the technology progress. The SNAP method, unlike FPA, will never be complete, as with technology changes new solutions will appear and they will require new categories and subcategories.
About the author
Marian Zalcman, PhD (technical sciences), MSc (mathematics & physics), worked as a system analyst in Polish computer companies and abroad, for UN: UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA. Lecturer at Bilkent University, Ankara. For last few years,(working for ASSECO Poland) occupied with issues of counting the functional size of computer systems (FPA & SNAP methods).
