Detailed Use Case Points (DUCPs): A Size Metric Automatically Countable from Sequence and Class Diagrams

Sequence and class diagrams are widely used to model the behavioral and structural aspects of a software system. A size metric that is defined automatically countable from sequence and class diagrams boosts both the efficiency and the accuracy of size estimation by producing reproducible software size measurements. To fulfill the purposes, a size metric called Detailed Use Case Points (DUCPs) is proposed based on the information automatically derived from sequence and class diagrams. The automation is largely supported by our proposed user-system interaction model (USIM) that fills the gap between the system abstraction by the sizing model and the metamodels of the UML diagrams. The effectiveness of our proposed size metric in project effort estimation is validated by an empirical study of 22 historical projects.