A Functional Size Measurement Method for Event- Based Object-oriented Enterprise Models

The effective management of IS-related processes requires measuring the functional size of information systems. Functional size measurement is usually performed using the Function Points Analysis method. Earlier attempts to apply Function Point counting rules to object-oriented systems met with serious problems because the implicit model of functional user requirements in Function Points Analysis is hard to reconcile with the object-oriented paradigm. The emergence of a new generation of functional size measurement methods has changed this picture. The main implementation of this generation, COSMIC Full Function Points, explicitly defines a generic model of functional user requirements onto which artifacts belonging to any IS specification or engineering methodology can be mapped. In this paper we present specific COSMIC-FFP mapping rules for methodologies that take an event-based approach to information system engineering. In particular we show that the event-oriented nature of the COSMIC-FFP measurement rules provides for a natural mapping of concepts. To illustrate the mapping rules we use MERODE, a formal event-based object-oriented methodology for systems development in information processing intensive domains. The mapping rules presented are confined to the enterprise layer in a MERODE IS architecture.

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