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Specification-based software sizing: An empirical investigation of function metricsFor some time the software industry has espoused the need for improved specification-based software size metrics. This paper reports on a study of nineteen recently developed systems in a variety of application domains. The systems were developed by a single software services corporation using a variety of languages. The study investigated several metric characteristics. It shows that: earlier research into inter-item correlation within the overall function count is partially supported; a priori function counts, in themself, do not explain the majority of the effort variation in software development in the organization studied; documentation quality is critical to accurate function identification; and rater error is substantial in manual function counting. The implication of these findings for organizations using function based metrics are explored.
Document ID
19940031981
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Jeffery, Ross
(New South Wales Univ. Kensington, Australia)
Stathis, John
(New South Wales Univ. Kensington, Australia)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
November 1, 1993
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Goddard Space Flight Center, Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Software Engineering Workshop
Subject Category
Computer Programming And Software
Accession Number
94N36488
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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