An Assessment of Function Point-Like Metrics for Object-Oriented Open-Source Software

Since object-oriented programming became a popular development practice, researchers and practitioners have defined several techniques aimed at measuring object-oriented software. Among these, several Function Point-like approaches have been proposed. However, mapping the concepts at the basis of Function Point Analysis onto object-oriented concepts is not straightforward; therefore, there is the need to test the validity of FP-based object-oriented metrics. This article addresses questions concerning the relations between FP-like object-oriented metrics and more traditional object-oriented metrics, and the relations of object-oriented FP-like metrics with each other. The work reported here is based on the analysis of two sets of object-oriented applications: a set of programs developed by master students of a software engineering course and a set of open-source programs. Different kinds of FP-based object-oriented metrics were applied, and the results analyzed.