An Exploratory Study on Functional Size Measurement Based on Code

In this paper we explore opportuni¬ties, challenges, and obstacles that Functional Size Measurement (FSM) experts assume to be in automatically de¬rived functional size, di¬rectly from the software project code itself. We designed a structured survey, that was an-swered by 336 FSM specialists. A majority of the respondents con-sider FSM to be an important tool for decision making. No indications are found for any perceived impact of agile methodology on the difficulty of applying FSM. Respondents overall think of automated FSM as important, but also difficult to realize. 54% of the respondents think that automated FSM will help measurement specialists, while 44% thinks that it will help decision makers too. The most preferred FSM method for automation is COSMIC (25%), followed by IFPUG (21%) and Nesma (16%). Respondents perceive automated FSM to be most suitable for baselining, benchmarking, and maintenance and legacy purposes.