Formalizing COSMIC-FFP using ROOM

We propose a formalization of the COSMIC Full Function Point (COSMIC-FFP) measure for the Real-time Object Oriented Modeling (ROOM) language. COSMIC-FFP is a measure of the functional size of software. It has been proposed by the COSMIC group as an adaptation of the function point measure for real-time systems. The definition of COSMIC-FFP is general and can be applied to any specification language. The benefits of our formalization are twofold. First it eliminates measurement variance, because the COSMIC informal definition is subject to interpretation by COSMIC-FFP raters, which may lead to different counts for the same specification, depending on the interpretation made by each rater. Second it allows the automation of COSMIC-FFP measurement for ROOM specifications, which reduces measurement costs. Finally, the formal definition of COSMIC-FFP can provide a clear and unambiguous characterization of COSMIC-FFP concepts which is helpful for measuring COSMIC-FFP for other object-oriented notations like UML.