Purpose: The purpose of this index is to provide pointers to the topics included in the Certified Software Measurement Specialist (CSMS) exam offered by the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG). This information is provided as a courtesy for CSMS candidates. IFPUG is not responsible for the accessibility, currency, availability, or content of sites referenced herein.
The MRC established a target distribution by topic for the questions on the CSMS exam. The percents below indicate a limit to the percent of questions intended by topic area, not a minimum; therefore a summing to 100 percent is not intended. These percentages provide a reasonable distribution of topical areas to guide those preparing for the exam. The percentages are not a guarantee that the exam that any specific candidate receives contains these topics or these percents.
Topical Overview:
General areas of study that transcend specific listed topical areas: benefits, motivations, and barriers to measurement, measurement program basics, continuous process improvement, quality basics, defects, estimating and analysis, basic statistics / usage / analysis, product size, productivity, functional size, project management, metrics, sustaining measurement, Balanced Scorecard, benchmarking, measurement usage in contracts, outsourcing, service levels, and customer satisfaction.
Topical Areas: (some of the links below are to source documents; others are links to sites to procure those documents)