Princeton Junction, USA, November 30, 2003. The International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) is pleased to announce the publication of an International Standard to measure the functional size of software – ISO/IEC 20926:2003 Software engineering – IFPUG 4.2 Unadjusted functional size measurement method – Counting practices manual. The publication of the ISO standard confirms IFPUG Function Points as the preeminent method for measuring software size.

Scott Goldfarb, IFPUG President, said:
»This is a landmark achievement for IFPUG and the software industry. IFPUG function point analysis is the only functional sizing method that is well-proven, well-established and well-documented. After 25 years of usage, we now have an officially recognized, worldwide standard for measuring the functional size of software.«

Capers Jones, Chief Scientist Emeritus, Software Productivity Research, Inc. said:
»The issuance of a function point standard by ISO should be very valuable to the world software community. Having an ISO standard on functional measurement joins the top international standards group with the most widely used software metric.«

In 1979, Allan Albrecht of IBM published a paper on function point analysis – a method for measuring software size from a business perspective. Interest in an industry-wide standard for measuring software size inspired the formation of IFPUG in 1986, to manage the evolution of the method and to provide supporting materials and training services. IFPUG has since grown to become the preeminent software metrics organization with members throughout the world. IFPUG function point analysis is increasingly being used as a basis for software management, outsourcing contracts and process improvement initiatives in a wide variety of software disciplines from financial management to missile defense systems.

In 1993, JTC1 (the international standards committee for information technology) initiated a project to standardize function point analysis. The name of the project was later changed to »functional size measurement« – effectively reducing the scope to concentrate on defining »functional size«, while dispensing with »technical size« and »quality size«. The culmination of that project was the publication, earlier this month, of the IFPUG method for functional size measurement as an International Standard.

For further information about function points and the benefits of IFPUG membership, see or contact the latter:

www.ifpug.org

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