Fla. When Ross became CIO about three years ago, he wanted to understand why software development projects at the company took, on average, twice as long as expected. Nielsen Media used standard techniques to plan projects, including estimating lines of code and task-based Gantt charts. But lines of code bear little relation to software function. And while Gantt charts were OK for tracking tasks, they were inadequate for estimating size. By analyzing a given project's size, duration and staffing together, the model spells out the optimal resource requirements for the project.
Users can also adjust the three variables to generate what-if scenarios.
FPA measures software size by assigning a numeric value to each function provided to the user. The latter is more complex, however, and involves more data files, so it would get a higher numeric value than the former. Because FPs measure the things users actually do with a piece of software, they relate directly to its business value. Counting is done by hand. With the help of KnowledgePlan, these numbers are totaled and normalized to produce a single number that represents the size and complexity of the software.