IFPUG: Annual Conference Presentation Abstracts

International Software Measurement & Analysis Conference
Presented by IFPUG

September 13-15, 2010
American Chamber of Commerce, São Paulo, Brazil

Presentation Abstracts

Tuesday

Wednesday

Tuesday, September 14

10:20 am – 11:10 am

Measurement – A Strategic Tool for Cost Planning and Auditing
Renato Ferreira, Brasil Navy

The increasing demand for system development and maintenance services has led government organizations to externally contract software factories. This presentation describes how Function Point Analysis may help government organizations and control agencies in planning, controlling, and auditing system development project contracts with efficiency and effectiveness. The main objectives of this presentation are: to promote the use of metrics in software contracts in accordance with Normative Instruction IN04 published by the Ministry of Planning, Budgeting, and Management of the Brazilian government, and guarantee the best use of the systems acquisition government budget. Estimation methods and the application of Make or Buy Analysis using Function Points are also presented.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

Estimating software project size using Function Points in the early phases of the lifecycle
Using a software estimation process in the project plan
Estimating software project costs
Performing software project Make of Buy Analysis using the Function Point metric
Auditing government software contracts from an economic perspective by analyzing completed projects

Use of Function Points in Agile Projects
Carlos Henrique Oest, Petrobras

This presentation build on the Petrobras experience in using Function Point Analysis for portfolio management and project estimation in an agile methods environment.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Using FP-based indicators to manage a project portfolio
Using function points to support estimation in agile projects
Assess project progress using FP-based indicators
Learn from experience in project management using agile methods
Learn the difficulties in using FPs to support agile projects

An Estimation Improvement Program in a Software Organization
Vitor Batista, Synergia

The ongoing increase of size and complexity of currently requested software products forces development organizations to continuously improve their project management processes. In this context, good estimates are paramount to good project planning and success in terms of meeting their commitments. This presentation shows an estimation improvement program executed in a software development organization. The program was executed according to a well-defined process and includes estimation in all phases of the software development process. Proposed process improvement actions utilize methods based on the best estimation practices found in literature and validated in pilot projects before being incorporated to the organization’s processes. The program’s results will serve as a basis for other organizations with a need to invest in estimation improvement.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Estimation Techniques
COCOMO
FP Counting Automation on UML Models
Estimate Evaluation
Metrics Repository

11:20 am – 12:10 pm

Doing Business with Function Points: Function Point-based Business Models
Mauricio Aguiar, TI Metricas

Doing Business with Function Points: Function Point-based Business Models in Brazil by Mauricio Aguiar and Diana Baklizky. Why do banks, credit card companies, airlines, telecom giants, and the government invest in function point implementation? What secret has made function point analysis a daily activity in so many Brazilian organizations? What business drivers have made Brazil the second largest user of function points in the world? What business processes are involved in function point implementation? Learn the answer to these questions in this presentation including examples from several Brazilian organizations (for confidentiality reasons individual organizations will not be identified).

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

Business reasons for functional sizing with IFPUG function points
Function point analysis as a pricing mechanism
Function point-based business processes
Benefits and challenges of function point-based business models

FP Sizing of SOA Applications Made Easy
Shalini Thulasi, Accenture

This paper recommends an approach for sizing SOA based application addressing all challenges faced while applying IFPUG rules. SOA deals with the Service Orientation through Contracts. It also deals with modularity, layering, loose coupling, reusability etc. Moreover an SOA based application (one needs to think as a collection of applications) might deal with the usage of lot of technologies at different layers etc. Here, applications will be highly distributed across different layers. It consists of Front Ends/Channels, Middleware, Back End Engines and Data Base. Often, an FP specialist faces the challenges like identifying user of the application, identifying an application boundary, identifying sizing mechanism for commonly services exposed globally for various other applications. This paper provides guidelines for sizing SOA based application which is relatively new technology abiding to IFPUG rules. Our aim is to provide an answer to a business problem and business needs to leverage the investment done for SOA. Recommend Approach: In SOA, unlike Shared data concept, the responsibility is shared by all interacting applications. Hence each application is considered to be having separate boundary and counted separately based upon the user’s view of the business functionality. Follow separate counting approach for applications at each layer as here there is only transactional/request data For Front end applications consider all transactions as EO/EQ’s. Here note that they are not considered as EI’s as no ILF will be maintained within the boundary and requests are sent to back end. For middleware applications consider all transactions as EO/EQ’s based on the primary intent For Back end applications, consider all exposed services as EI/EO/EQ’s based on the primary intent. Since all data functions are maintained here, count all ILFs. Ensure not to count various frameworks which will be commonly used by all these applications such as caching, exception, logging etc as these are technical requirements. Always ensure to document the approach followed for future reference or clarification.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

Typical overview of Service Oriented Architecture.
Identifying application boundary for SOA Applications.
Recommend approach & guidelines based sizing a large SOA based application.
Guidelines for sizing the services exposed by SOA application.

Function Point Analysis – A Cornerstone to Estimating
Joe Schofield, Sandia National Labs

Do you manage your software development project costs? How about their durations? Most organizations implement management practices for cost and schedule, or at least they think they do. How can these estimates be offered confidently without a reliable size estimate? Function Point Analysis lends credibility to the estimation process; it’s good business and good for business.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Tips on early life cycle size estimation
Understanding size to cost variations
Understanding size to schedule variation
Pitfalls of project management
The value of function point analysis early and often

1:40 pm – 2:30 pm

IN SLTI 04/2008 and Results Assessment
Cláudio Cavalcanti, Ministério do Planejamento (Ministry of Planning)

Normative Instruction SLTI 04/2008 establishes a new IT service contracting process in the Federal Government where objective results assessment plays a fundamental role. This presentation will show the key concepts in the new contracting model developed by the Secretary of Information Technology and Logistics of the Ministry of Planning to suppport government agencies, such as the inception of the federal government metrics center and training of public servants in Function Point Analysis.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Service Contracting in the Public Sector
Assessment of results in software development contract management
Outsourcing in the Public Sector
Creation of the Federal Government Metrics Center
Function Point Analysis Training in the Public Sector

Using FPA in Mobile Government Projects
Sergio Gdanski, MJV Tecnologia

The cellular platform is now a part of our daily life. In the M-GOV (Mobile Government) it will be possible to create and develop innovative products to fulfill the needs of both government and citizens. This presentation will show how it is possible to measure these new applications using FPA.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

How to measure M-Gov using FPA
Measure cellular systems using FPA
Knowledge of measurement in mobile platforms
How to present measurement data in mobile platforms
Is it possible to measure mobile platforms using FPA?

The Truth About Software Development
Donald Beckett, Quantitative Software Management

It is a truism that software projects chronically exceed their schedules and budgets. All sorts of strategies have been employed to remedy this: structured programming, software development life cycles, requirements determination and change management processes, and organizational maturity programs to name a few. But, the problem remains. Why? In The Truth About Software Development, we propose that a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of software is at the root of many of its problems. In addition, this is compounded by a lack of knowledge (and sometimes deliberate denial) of the relationships between project schedule, cost/effort, and quality. The Truth About Software Development does not provide a silver bullet to project managers; but it will arm them with a better understanding of what software is and how it works. With that, they can direct their energies towards solving the right problem.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Most projects are over budget and exceed their schedules
Software is not a manufacturing process
You can’t plan what you don’t know; but, you can plan for it
Software development is riddled with non-linear relationships
The system conceived is not the system delivered

2:40 pm – 3:30 pm

New Techniques for Prioritising which Software Projects are Funded
Pam Morris, Total Metrics

In the current economic climate business areas are forced to compete for funding from very limited budgets. When our economy was booming we managed to do without formal strategies for focussing our funding. We approved purchases and implemented solutions, often without all the key stakeholders clearly understanding or articulating the business need and without formally quantifying and being accountable for delivered benefits. Within the IT department we often had our favourite technology solution looking for a problem… and we could usually find someone to fund it. Even if we were required to formally define the benefits of a successful software implementation we would be hard pressed to articulate why the money was well spent and be able to justify why it should not have been spent elsewhere. Typically once a budget is approved a software project is rarely revisited to ensure that it is still aligned to the original set of proposed benefits. Often the organisations ‘goal-posts have moved’ due to external pressures but we are so busy keeping the project on time an on budget that we rarely assess if the functionality delivered will deliver business value and whether the project should change direction or be cancelled. This presentation provides techniques as to how as IT Professionals we can better demonstrate our value to the organisation and work with management to prioritise IT investment to be continually aligned with changes in organisational strategic direction. It provides details and experiences in using the formal Investment prioritisation methodology developed by the Treasury department within an Australian State Government, to assist government departments in focussing their funding approvals. This structured approach of being able to very quickly assess software solutions to ensure that they will deliver benefits aligned with the organisations strategic direction has now been adopted by other Australian organisations who need to prioritise where they invest their money and be able to quantitatively demonstrate the ‘investment’ will deliver the expected business value. Organisations using the Investment Management methodology have been able to demonstrate considerable cost savings by reducing the number of Business Cases developed and the time to write them, and improved businessoutcomes by only funding projects that deliver long term financial benefits.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

New Investment Management Standard
Structured Methods to Prioritise projects
Templates for describing Investment logic
New Service Logic Investment prioritisation
Saving costs on building Business Cases

Sizing a Batch Job Application with FPA
Manoj Sable, Accenture Services Pvt. Ltd.

Using current counting practices, as described in the CPM 4.2 manual, this paper documents the scenarios encountered in an application that utilizes batch jobs. Function Point Analysis of batch processes is challenging because the description of such processes is usually technical. This paper provides simple guidelines approach while counting the same. The specific function point counting procedures addressed in this paper are:

Scope of Count
Identify application boundary
Determine data function and transaction function.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Describes various challenging scenario in batch jobs
Questions to ask the SME while sizing the batch jobs
Provide lateral thoughts to size automated jobs, archival jobs

A Method to Assess the Efficiency of Software Projects
Renata Alchorne, Inmetrics

The purpose of this presentation is to show several concepts related to the term "efficiency" and how it should be used to measure the performance of software development projects. With the competition among industries and companies from several areas, one main objective has been to reduce costs and effort by leveraging resources involved in asset and service production. Many call this efficiency. This concept is used to describe the idea of producing something quickly and accomplishing an objective. Furthermore, another relevant point on the difficulty of measuring efficiency is that the unit measured (a team, a project, etc.) may generate one or more outputs from one or more inputs. How can one assign proper weights to these elements to assess efficiency? This presentation proposes the adoption of an efficiency concept and uses it to define a method to compute it for the organization’s software projects.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Productivity concept
Different understandings about efficiency
Productivity X Efficiency
DEA – Data Envelopment Analysis technique
Efficiency computation in software projects

3:40 pm – 4:30 pm

Metrics Center – Achieving Excellence in IT Governance
Gustavo Simões, Fatto Consultoria e Sistemas

The use of Function Point Analysis to only estimate and measure projects and enhancements does not represent all the advantages brought by the technique. The deployment and organization of a metrics excellence center will allow the organization to obtain the benefits brought by the use of FPA in all the software development disciplines, either for internal or outsourcing management. Some benefits achieved with this initiative are the ability to manage system development and maintenance without having to interfere with the supplier’s internal management, the ability to establish criteria and procedures for measuring development and maintenance services, including metrics, indicators, and values, and the ability to give the organization the capability to manage performance, internal or external, based on results, these are some of the benefits achieved with this initiative. In this CASE we will present the difficulties associated with the deployment process, the good practices adopted to foster the initiative’s success, the particulars of maintenance projects and the lessons learned in this deployment.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

How to deploy a metrics center
Results achieved by the metrics center and lessons learned
Project management with metrics and indicators
How to equip the organization to manage supplier performance based on results

Applying a Sampling Approach & Monte Carlo Simulation in an Application FP Count
Linda Ye, BMO Financial Group

As a professional providing function point analysis, have you ever been faced with a seemingly impossible task? This presentation shares one such experience, as an application of both academic and practical learnings. The challenge faced in this presentation is a real life situation of the need to complete the application baseline of large legacy application which had incomplete / missing documentation. The resulting approach was to develop a Monte Carlo model based on sampling what was known of the application, and then use Minitab to validate the accuracy of the result. The presentation will share the method and learnings, with the desire to obtain feedback from the community for our further improvement.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

An creative way of thinking to overcome challenges
A unique approach to sizing based on sampling used when faced with incomplete documentation, which can accurately predict application base functional size
A Monte Carlo simulation model used to validate the accuracy of the sampling approach
A Minitab test to verify the results of Monte Carlo model
A real case proves that there is nothing impossible for an experienced function point specialist

The Significance of IFPUG Base Functionality Types in Effort Estimation
Luigi Buglione, ETS / Engineering.IT

Although Functional Size Measurement (FSM) methods have been standardized and have become widely used by software organizations, the relationship between functional size and development effort still needs further investigation. As more projects data has been collected in benchmark repositories, the researchers and practitioners have started to explore the significance of different cost factors (related to project, product and organization characteristics) in estimating. When estimating effort, the general approach is to use the functional size of a software system as well as some cost factors as the main inputs. The functional size is expressed as a single value (e.g IFPUG Function Points (FP)). This single value is derived from a measurement function and it is the sum of the functional sizes of different Base Functional Components (BFC). IFPUG FPA, which is one of the well known FSM methods, defines the BFC Types as External Input, External Output, External Inquiry, Internal Logical File and External Interface File. Each BFC Type represents different type of functionality to be provided to the users. The goal for this study is to investigate whether considering the sizes of the IFPUG FPA Base Functional Component (BFC) types instead of a total size figure would have a significant impact on estimation accuracy. For this study, we used the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG) new Release 11 dataset, filtering those projects sized with the IFPUG FPA method from more than 4000 projects for future analyses.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

To help project managers and estimators to obtain better estimates using the same historical data
To propose a list of filtering criteria helping in obtaining better homogeneous clusters for data analysis and process improvements
To identify and manage ‘not visible’ outliers in your own historical data
To go into a deeper detail when gathering more granular data in your historical database, that help in consolidating CMMI ML2 goals and achieving faster ML3 ones with better PALs (Process Asset Libraries)
To stimulate improvements in your organization supporting more and more experience by quantitative data

Wednesday, September 15

10:20 am – 11:10 am

Improve FPA Yield with 6 Sigma
Mohammed Kabir Sheikh, Accenture

Function Point programs being run globally in organizations have one of the basic aim which is to estimate the project effort accurately. Moreover its very difficult to do so during proposal stage. However organizations have struggled to accurately estimate even in other stages of project lifecycle. Organizations need a disciplined approach to tackle this problem. Six Sigma provides a very good framework and tools to tackle this situation in a gradual and consistent manner. In my paper I would like to propose how we can improve our FPA yield and reduce effort variations by using a systematic approach the Six Sigma way.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Understanding criticality of variations in Actual Project Effort and Function Point Estimated Effort
What is Yield , various passes of yield in Six Sigma and Statistical Control Charts
Deriving FPA Yield and Improve sigma
Monitor and track the variations in efforts using Statistical Control Charts and other tools
What are the control measures required to get project on track and reduced variation between Actual Effort and FP estimated Effort

Function Points as Product Units
Carlos Vazquez, FATTO Consultoria e Sistemas

Software maintenance has a series of peculiarities when compared to software development. This article describes a successful case of solving strategic and tactical management issues regarding planning and control of COTS software production using function points as a product unit. Among those issues, the most critical are: scheduling change requests from the client base thru a time-boxed scenario where four releases are made within a one year time period; improve quality and productivity; decrease of overhead time of development and test departments. CMMi® Measurement and Analysis process area description was used as a road map and the critical improvements were achieved by means of defining and implementing: Management milestones to track progress dissociated of software engineering disciplines; the standard work package as management unit for planning department’s demands; the reengineering of the development department, segregating activities measured by production from those measured by availability.

Target Audience:

Highlights

A sound approach to use function points to estimate effort for small demands common in a maintenance environment
The importance of data normalization in order to avoid adding up oranges with apples
How a well defined organizational structure relates to a measurement and analysis program
Differentiation of software engineering disciplines from management tracking milestones and the crucial role in implementing an effective measurement and analysis program
The key requirements in order to choose an adequate standard for a work package unit

Software Measurment: A Critical View
Alcione Ramos, Foton Informatica

The software industry has witnessed a large growth in the last years. However, the world economic situation is not satisfactory. In this context there is a new emphasis on measurement providing greater clarity and direction for more precise decision making. To measure is to know, learn, and understand. The measurement journey is a movement toward truth and constitutes the establishment of a new culture, since applying measurement is a discipline that creates knowledge and provides results. Starting with a group dynamics that will involve the whole audience Alcione will get spectators to think (actually provoking them) based on her 10+ year experience in Metrics plus 20+ in the IT area. With the intent of developing a critical view of the application of software measurement, participants will receive warnings on good and bad practices and will navigate, together with Alcione, from the Software Crisis to the current IT scenario where measurement-based decisions are made. The following questions will be addressed: FPA, measure and technique/estimation model selection for managing/acquiring/contracting/improving IT services, IT management (operations, projects, programs, portfolios), Measurement and Analysis Programs, required skills for Metrics professionals, industry practices and other related topics fundamental to generation of a critical mass in the area, with recommendations to whoever is involved (directly or indirectly) or wishes to develop their Metrics capability and maturity.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

To help project managent decisions, resource hiring, or Software Factory contracting
To recognize and promote process standardization and project documentation
To act as an advisor in discussions on how to use productivity
To inform decision making levels on the risks of bad use of measurement
To help the organization in maturing the use of measurement improving predictability, control, and efficiency

11:20 am – 12:10 pm

Measurement in Perspective - Effective Measurement Design from User Perspectives
Terry Vogt, Booz Allen Hamilton

Measurement is a core part of the information needed to manage any business endeavor. This is no less true of IT than of any other area. In software, size is effectively measured with function points. Many other measures are also used in a wide variety of combinations for specific needs. Often the problem of measurement is in having too many different measures rather than not enough. A key problem is in not knowing or deciding which measures are necessary or essential. Techniques such as G-Q-M help users determine which ones must be used to meet their needs. But there is a larger problem to be addressed. The information needed varies according to the perspective of the user. This perspective is manifested in the different levels of management responsibility and functional capabilities of the organization. Yet the diverse information needs of the various measurement user perspectives include many core measures in common along with a wide range of measures particular to each perspective. If each user area builds its own measurement system in isolation, the predictable result is massive duplication of data and effort with inconsistent data definitions and non-standard data collection. This chaos can be the downfall of even the most carefully planned approach to creating an effective measurement system. This presentation will describe an approach to design a comprehensive system that serves the major measurement user perspectives and helps to avoid the hazards of measurement systems built in isolation to serve individual user areas.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

User perspectives determine measurement needs
Measurement requirements must satisfy user goals and objectives
Each perspective requires some unique measures
Many measures are shared across user perspectives
A comprehensive design approach ensures effectiveness and reduces waste

Function Points and Agile – Hand in Hand
Amol Kumar Keote, Accentuer Services Pvt Ltd

I am presenting close collaboration between FPA and Agile. Agile has already proven records in software delivery management and FPA could work as a heart for Agile development.

Agile Requirement’s tracking using Function Points. (Generating Requirement Traceability Metrics using FP and percentage of requirement’s volatility in Agile)
Agile Project estimation using Function Points
Agile Project Budgeting using Function Points
Agile – Function Points Based Decision analysis and resolution technique
Agile Project Management using FP
- Agile (Scrum) – Product catalog preparation using Function Points. Managing and prioritizing Product Catalog using Function Points
- Agile (Extreme Programming) – Preparation of user stories using Function Points
- Resource requirements to build the project. Preparation of test cases for Agile based testing using Function Points
Agile metrics in terms of Function points.
Best Practices and Challenges.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Agile End to End Project Management using Function Points
Budgeting of Agile Project Management using Function Points
Managing/Tracking Volatility in requirements using Function Points
Agile Metrics in terms of Function Points. i.e, Velocity, Defect Injection Rate, Review effectiveness of Agile development.
Effectiveness of Function Points in Agile development.

Statistical Process Control in Projects
Marcio Silveira, HP

This presentation provides an overview of Statistical Process Control (SPC) in projects. During the presentation you will see what SPC is about and a framework to apply it in projects. Also some examples will be shown and lessons learned will be shared in the audience.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

What is Statistical Process Control(SPC)
Good candidates to SPC
SPC meets CMMI
A SPC framework – Examples
Lessons Learned and Q&A

1:40 pm – 2:30 pm

The Thorin Simulation
Paula Falcão / Manoel Jardim, KDP Kepler

Thorin is a game to simulate and quantify deviations in project development. In this game participants simulate the development of an IT project in the XXIII century, experiencing several scenario changes resulting from the project’s evolution.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

How to adapt to scope change
How to measure deviations in project financial results
Excellence strategies in project leadership
Results and schedule optimization
Importance of planning

Definition of a Measurement Guide for Data Warehouse Projects
Claudia Hazan, Servico Federal de Processamento de Dados (SERPRO)

The best practices associated with software development and maintenance projects recommend the utilization of objective metrics in supplier payments. Brazilian government control agencies have recommended the utilization of unudjusted function points. Although the Counting Practices Manual defines the rules for funciton point counting considerable difficulty has been identified in the application of those rules to Data Warehouse projects. This presentation will provide a roadmap describing a step-by-step approach to FP-counting Data Warehouse projects. It will also propose metrics for the business modeling phase in those projects. Simplified methods for effort and schedule estimation will also be presented to support companies in pricing those projects. Additionally, maintenance project metrics for Data Warehouse installed applications will be defined. The purpose is to support clients and suppliers in Data Warehouse development or maintenance projects in using function points as input to estimation or billing.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Function Point Count Data Warehouse Projects
Define metrics for the business modeling phase focusing on Data Warehouse project contracts
Estimate Data Warehouse Project Schedule
Estimate Data Warehouse Project Effort
Measure Maintenance Projects in Data Warehouse Applications

Transitioning to Function Points with PSM
Diana Baklizky, TI Metricas

Transitioning to Function Points with PSM (Practical Software & Systems Measurement) by Diana Baklizky and Cecilia Techy. The DoD-funded PSM initiative provides an excellent roadmap for measurement definition and implementation. This presentation will show how PSM has been used to deploy function point-based processes in several Brazilian organizations.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

Basics of the PSM process and information models
Function point-based processes: objectives, obstacles, and information needs
Typical base measures, derived measures, and indicators
The importance of training
A roadmap for function point implementation using PSM

2:40 pm – 3:30 pm

Standardization Issues in Software Measurement and Estimation
Dan Galorath, Galorath Corp

Measurement of anything requires agreement on the meaning of terms and standards on how the terms that are being applied. Uniform values for units of measure are fundamental to this agreement. While function points provide a uniform gauge of software functionality, lines of code are highly problematic. Beyond size measures, the measurement of effort applied to software development and maintenance is subject to the unique decisions of individual companies and users. The allocation of costs incurred is equally subjective both between and within most companies. Even the descriptions of deliverables and work products are variable. These highly inconsistent approaches to management record keeping make any attempt to analyze or predict the values of those components extremely doubtful. Yet major decisions are made every day based on this sketchy information. There is enormous consequence to the inconsistency of terms in software measurement. This presentation will discuss what should and can be done to reduce the variability of these elements of cost and effort to produce a more reliable set of business information.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

Key terms in software measurement and their basic meaning
Inconsistent definitions, descriptions and usage of measurement terms
Effect of definitional inconsistency on effort and cost analysis and estimation
Proposed solutions to resolve or reduce inconsistency

Bullet Proofing FPA-A Team’s Journey
Abubucker Alathick, Accenture Services

FPA is subjective analyses of application requirements with SME interaction which guides the analyst to determine Size. It feeds into many activities like productivity measurement, effort and cost estimation which makes it a critical requirement and establishes the necessity for accuracy. As per IFPUG committee guidelines a deviation of 10% between counters is acceptable. Underlying the acceptable deviation on accuracy is the assumption that when an audit is performed the count difference should be 10%. Given the cost focus prevalent among customers and vendors, it rarely happens that an FPA is put to the acid test/audit unless and until there is an escalation or to establish contractual commitments. Even in organizations that have setup dedicated capabilities to do FPA, the imperative to be as accurate as possible is lost due to:

Lack of Leadership Support
Minimal documentation or Lack of it
Lack of domain experience of Counters
Disconnect on FPA between SME and Counter
Unavailability of SME’s for Verification immediately
Cost considerations while performing FPA It becomes impractical to achieve the expected level of accuracy shaking the very foundations of repeatability and consistency FPA prides itself with.

I want to bring to your attention a team’s journey to achieve accuracy with discipline, tools, checklists and all means they adopted for the same.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

Benefits of Accurate FPA
Building the Accuracy Mindset
Institutionalizing Quality into FPA
Cost/Benefit Analysis
Accuracy – The Holy Grail of FPA

How to Measure: That is the Question
Gordana Kis, BMO Financial Group

To measure or not to measure is not the question anymore for even marginally mature process. So the real remaining question is how to do it. The answer to that question can mean difference between highly productive process and waste of time accompanied by frustrations of all the participants. Quite often in practice, subtle changes in measurement methodology can cause crossing the line between the two. Based on several years of experience in implementing measurement program, the author will present both successful practices as well as common mistakes that can help you to succeed in establishing and improving your measurement program. - Turn numbers into action: use data to show the organization where to go! - Measure what you really need! - Mature organization does not mandate tasks and forms – they are already there because they are needed! These are just some of the practices that lead you to success. While: - - Measuring what is convenient (but useless) - - Use standards or frameworks (ISO, CMMI, Six Sigma…) without tailoring and common sense - - Setting organizational quality scorecard goals based on (text book) "industry standards" - not on organizational capabilities and historical measurement data. are the common pitfalls that can have major negative impact on the program success.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

How to improve your measurement program– advises based on a number of years of practical experience
What are the common practices that can help you succeed in creating measurement program
How to avoid common pitfalls that can have major negative impact on the measurement program and productivity
How to successfully tailor any standard or framework
Risks associated with not doing measurement

3:40 pm – 4:30 pm

Innovative Approach to FP Automation
Siddharth Misra, Accenture

Imagine a situation when one is given the task of sizing an application and all one has to do to size the application is just click a button on the screen after selecting a document. This paper is just food for thought in this direction which aims to sow the seeds of a fully automated process. This is proposed to be done by taking the properly formatted use case document as a feed and generates reports for the count. The document creator for this need not be an FP specialist but should be able to understand and record the needs of a business user in quite a high level manner. One aspect of this whitepaper will provide pointers to build such documentation. This would reduce the FP specialist overhead of navigate through thousands of screens and reading up huge documentation to understand the overall functionality. This formatted use case document, if used as a standard template can be used by any developmental project needing FP sizing and also can have the normal functionality provided to the developer and in addition, to the FP counter. Operations of the automated tool: This tool uses a repetitive template of table objects inside which the creator makes the entries. This is then read by the tool which peruses each of the relevant table and columns to identify the Data Functions and Transaction functions and their complexities.

Target Audience: Introductory

Highlights

Brief walk through of existing FP automation approaches
The new approach that makes FP Sizing less resource intensive and easier
The advantages to the new approach
The technical perspective to developing such a tool

Continuous Improvement – FPA as a Quality Tool
Ana Miccolis, PUC Rio

In the last few years Function Point Analysis has been extremely important in Brazil with strong focus on software contracting. Several companies utilize this technique in an increasingly mature way, leveraging experience and industry indicators to facilitate negotiations and new oportunities in the marketplace. In this scenario FPA has evolved and counts nowadays with specialized teams, external consultancies, and deep knowledge of involved professionals. By introducing a functional size measure companies have gained more than a measurement standard – requirements quality itself. Validation mechanisms have become sophisticated to follow the increasing demand for quality. In this presentation the authors describe how Function Point Analysis has helped to improve software quality.

Target Audience: Intermediate

Highlights

Count review processes
Actions to improve measurement quality
Risks to be avoided when creating count baselines
Tips to help forming CFPS teams
Function Point implementation

A Measurement Repository Fit for Statistical Control of Software Processes
Carlos Simoes, Synapsis Brasil Ltda

High maturity organizations hold the continuous improvement of their processes as their main goal. These organizations use metrics sistematically and analyze the collected data to make decisions, i.e., they effectively practice management by data. The quantitative capability evaluation of the software process defined for the project and its variations allow better project planning and management. To reach higher and higher quality levels it is necessary to improve each software lifecycle phase and, to make this possible, one needs to obtain, store, and analyze quantitative data describing the process reality. In this context software measures have been shown to be the key factor for process quality improvement, for they are the basis for the identification of its strengths and weaknesses, making it easy to visualize improvement opportunities. To accomplish that goal operational measures have to be stored in such a way that they may be filtered, classified, and aggregated in order to allow:

Trend analysis of specific indicators, that may be the basis for actions aiming at sustaining or reverting those tendencies
Impact analysis on quality and productivity when introducing new technologies, in order to help deciding which technology element combinations will guarantee the best results
Attribute analysis to compare quality, performance, and productivity among process components, platforms, methodologies, application areas, people technical skills, and so on
Process performance evaluation

In the initial levels of a process improvement program organizations adopt a measurement process that basically consists of data collection during project execution and comparison of that data with planned values.Software measurement must be efficiently performed since the inception of a process improvement program. It is common for organizations to use spreadsheets to store collected data. However, this approach is not sufficient for organizations seeking high process maturity. Maturity models (CMMI and MPS.BR) and quality standards (ISO / IEC 12207) state what a measurement repository is but do not describe how it should be constructed. Literature indicates that one of the great difficulties in reaching higher process maturity/capability levels is related to the inadequacy of collected measures and measurement databases for the application of statistical process control. The implementation of software statistical process control is hurt by the inadequacy of the measurement database and by the difficulty in handling the data. It requires adequate support for the definition, storage, and retrieval of measurement data. The lack in the software market of a measurement repository fit for software process statistical control slows down the implementation of software process statistical control. Additionally, a proposal for the definition of a measurement repository fit for software process statistical control is unheard of.

Target Audience: Advanced

Highlights

Requirements for a measurement repository fit for software process statistical control
Identification of the main difficulties in software process statistical control implementation
Software process improvement
High maturity in the CMMI-Dev model
High maturity in the MPS.BR model

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