On Thursday, March 26th at 1:00 PM EDT, Joe Madden will present QSM's Software Sizing Infographic: A Visual Aid for Understanding Software Size.

Software size, the amount of functionality in a given software release, is arguably the most critical of the five core metrics of software estimation. There is little point in tracking effort, duration, productivity and quality if you are unable to quantify what you are building. Yet, despite its critical importance, software sizing is often a difficult concept for many to understand and use properly in the estimation process. In this webinar, Joe Madden will give an overview of QSM's Software Size Matters Infographic, which addresses the challenges of measuring software size and identifies the most popular sizing methods and when to use them. With over 17 years of software sizing experience, Joe will provide case studies and best practices for real world application.

Joe Madden currently leads the QSM consulting division which has grown dramatically in the past six years and offers a wide range of professional services. These include the software estimation center of excellence, function point analysis, program and portfolio management, independent verification and validation, vendor management, benchmarking and process improvement, and expert witness services. A longtime client of the QSM SLIM Tools Suite and co-author of the book, "IT Measurement: Practical Advice from the Experts," Joe has more than 23 years of experience in IT management and consulting.

It’s easy to imagine there is a lot of complex computer software code required to operate and control a fully autonomous self-driving car, such as the prototype recently unveiled by Google, and that advanced systems engineering and software life cycle management techniques are required to successfully manage its development.  However, you may be surprised to find out that nearly every vehicle under 30 years old on the road today also depends on computer software - and lots of it.

According to an IEEE Spectrum article by Robert Charette entitled: “This Car Runs on Code,” the first production car to incorporate embedded software was the 1977 General Motors Oldsmobile Toronado which had an electronic control unit (ECU) that managed electronic spark timing.  By 1981, GM had deployed about 50,000 lines of engine control software code across their entire domestic passenger car line.  Other auto manufacturers soon followed the same trend.   

1977 General Motors Oldsmobile Toronado (image source)

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”

Answer:  For starters, think of T-shirts – Small, Medium, Large, or Extra-Large, or houses that can range from a small summer cottage all the way up to a 20,000 sq ft Hollywood mansion on a sprawling estate.

So it goes with software. You can have a small program with a few cool features, or a huge, complex computerized trading system for the New York Stock Exchange comprised of millions of lines of code, and everything in-between.

Question:  I have a large project and its size is 20 people. Is that what you mean?

Answer:  Not quite. That’s actually the number of the people on your team, or number of staff resources on the project.  It’s not the amount of functionality, or the volume of software created by a team of that size. 

Question:  Ok, so you’re saying that small feature sets for a software program - or a long list of features - is what you mean by the size of the software. Do you also mean lines of code?

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.

The QSM Code Counters page has been updated and extended to include both updated version information and additional code counters. Though QSM neither endorses nor recommends the use of any particular code counting tool, we hope the code counter page will be a useful resource that supports both size estimation and the collection of historical data.