Software Sizing
Frequently Asked Questions About Software Sizing
Software is everywhere in modern life - from automobiles, airplanes, utilities, banks, to complex systems and global communications networks. They run the gamut from tiny applets that comprise just a handful of instructions to giant systems running millions of lines of code that take years to build.
Software professionals are at the front lines of this information revolution. This post addresses Frequently Asked Questions about measuring the size of software applications after they’re finished and estimating the work for a project that has yet to be started. We hope it will help software professionals do a better job of describing what they are building for their companies as software continues to grow in strategic importance to our companies and to our daily lives.
Question: What do we mean by the term, “Software Size”
Code Counters and Size Measurement
Regardless of which size measures (Effective SLOC, function points, objects, modules, etc.) your organization uses to measure software size, code counters provide a fast and easy way to measure developed functionality. If your organization uses Effective (new and modified) SLOC, the output from an automated code counter can generally be used "as is". If you use more abstract size measures (function points or requirements, for example), code counts can be used to calculated gearing factors such as average SLOC/FP or SLOC/requirement.
