Purpose of the document
This document is intended for the audience to understand Use Case Points and the use of the same for measuring and tracking the progress of Delivery in Software Projects. This document also communicates the advantages and disadvantages of the approach as well.
Introduction
Companies invest heavily on application development in order to stay competitive .The software spending by companies on an average has risen from 32% to 60% of the total IT investment .However, the software organizations worldwide which are involved in application development and delivery ,still rely on input based metrics(time and material) to measure software delivery .The issue with the same is that such an input based metrics do not pin down the productivity of the team ,which needs to be based on the output delivered.
The following are the popular output metrics available.
Types of output based metrics
1.Lines of code
This is based on the total lines of code required to implement a functionality .This is not of much use in planning as the total lines of code would be known only after the completion of coding.
2.Story Points/User stories
The functionalities are documented in the form of user experience based stories, and the developers score each requirement based on their collective prior experience by reaching a consensus.
3.Function Points
These rely on in-depth analysis of the functional and technical requirements of an application and therefore offer a way to measure output. The analysis involves a host of elements ranging from a count of transactions and files required to deliver the desired functionality to adjustment for the complexity of the project’s technical requirements. As a result of this in-depth analysi...
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...methodologies of capturing and documenting the business /functional/technical requirements. These are not standardized across an IT organization which may consist of cross -enterprise teams as well. This makes it difficult to deploy standard output measurements across the IT organization.
3. Resistance among team members-A transition to such productivity based metrics could be seen as a threat by the team members as they hold them directly accountable .They would also perceive such a transition as inequitable as they could feel there are differences among the development projects which are not being taken into account.
Works Cited
1. Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of application development-McKinsey Quarterly –Aug 2013
2. Structure and Style in Use Cases for User Interface Design-Alistair Cockburn
3. Cohn-Estimating with Use case points-Mike Cohn
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