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6COM1042: Software Quality Assignment1
An empirical evaluation of an effort estimation technique
Overview (The following is a hypothetical Case Study)
As part of your Software Quality assignment, you have been asked to build a stock control
system. The following is the specification for the proposed system:
Requirements:
Question 1) Derive sub-functions from the above specification, describing the number that
fall under the following categories:
• External inputs
• External outputs
• External enquiries
• External files
and
• Internal files
[0 Marks]
Specification A
Specification for a stock control system:
The Baseline: Our stock control system will contain a relational database that stores
information on Stock, Suppliers, Orders, Customers and Invoices. Occasionally, it will
interact with our Supplier database, run in a separate section of our organisation, in
order to update Supplier details. Our system will also frequently interact with a
Payments system in the Payments section that processes customer payment of
invoices.
Key Functions: Our stock control system will update or create customer records. It will
also check customer credit rating and create customer orders. When a customer places
an order, the system will first check the customer credit rating, then check the
availability of the product being ordered, create an order, then update the stock levels
to reflect the product that has been ordered. For every Customer Order an Invoice is
created. At the end of every day’s transaction a Dispatch list, made up of all customer
orders with their delivery addresses is generated and printed off. Overnight, our
system interacts with the Payments systems by sending it an update of Customer
Invoices. The Payments system, in turn, sends our stock control system an update of
each customer’s credit rating based on their outstanding payments.
There are no other functions of this system.
2
Question 2) Assuming the following weightings for all the sub-functions in Question 1):
External inputs: Average
External outputs: Simple
External enquiries: Simple
External files: Complex
Internal files: Average
Calculate the Unadjusted Function Point count for the specification above. Remember to
detail the stages of your calculation by showing the formulae and standards used to derive
your solution. You must explain the Unadjusted Function Point count and how it fits into the
overall formula for Function Point calculations and also explain the constituents of any
formula that you use for your calculation.
[10 Marks]
Question 3) Calculate the adjusted Function Point count of the above specification by
factoring in the Technical Complexity Factor. For this calculation, assume the following
Technical Complexity Factors profile:
i. The following contributing factors are irrelevant:
• F1: Reliable back-up and recovery
• F3: Distributed functions
• F4: Performance
• F5: Heavily used configuration
• F7: Operational ease
• F9: Complex interface
• F10: Complex processing
• F11: Reusability
• F12: Installation ease
• F13: Multiple sites
• F14: Facilitate change
ii. There are NO contributing factors that are average:
iii. The following contributing factors are essential:
• F2: Data communication
• F6: Online data entry
• F8: Online update
[5 Marks]
Question 4) If it took you exactly 25.2 Person Hours to implement the Stock Control system
above, calculate your rate of productivity in Person Days, assuming that each Person Day is
equal to exactly 8 Person Hours.
[5 Marks]
3
Question 5) Using the productivity rate calculated in Question 4), predict how long it should
take you to implement the system described below.
[10 Marks]
The following are the identified sub-functions of the system specified by Specification B.
• External inputs (1)
o Enter marks
• External outputs (2)
o Student record, printed student marks
• External inquiries (3)
o Compute averages, Convert marks to grades, Student inquiring marks
• External files (1)
o Database of student records
• Internal files (1)
o Internal database of marks recording scheme
You should follow the steps given below to predict how long it should take you to implement
the system above:
i. Calculate UFC, assuming that all the weightings for the above sub functions are
simple.
ii. Assume the following Technical Complexity Factor (TCF) profile:
The following contributing factors are irrelevant:
• F1: Reliable back-up and recovery
• F3: Distributed functions
• F5: Heavily used configuration
• F9: Complex interface
• F10: Complex processing
• F11: Reusability
• F12: Installation ease
• F14: Facilitate change
The following contributing factors are average:
• F4: Performance
• F6: Online data entry
• F7: Operational ease
• F8: Online update
• F13: Multiple sites
F2: Data communication is essential
Specification B
Specification for a simple marks recording system:
Student records are uploaded electronically from another database onto the marks
recoding system. These records will contain no marks at this stage. After the examination
period, an administrator will enter the marks of students onto the database on the
system. The administrator will compute a set of averages for the marks obtained. She
would also convert the marks from numbers to letter grades. When a student rings up to
enquire about her marks, the administrator will enter the student’s number, which will in
turn invoke the student’s record. At the end of the exam period, students’ marks are
printed and sent off to another department for processing.
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iii. Then use the productivity rate from Question 4) to predict how long it will take you
to implement this simple marks recording system.
iv. State any assumptions you make in the calculation.
Question 6) Discuss why the predicted effort calculated above may be different to the actual
effort involved in implementing the above system. Give two reasons why the two efforts
may be different.
[10 Marks]
Question 7) Critically analyse Albrecht’s Effort Estimation Technique by:
i. highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of this technique
ii. comparing and contrasting the technique with at least one other effort estimation
technique.
[10 Marks]
5
Your solution will be assessed on the following Assessment criteria in Table 1 in reference
to a subset of the generic grading criteria for undergraduate assessment in Table 2:
Table 1: Assessment criteria
Requirements Marks
available
Marks
obtained
Q1) Derive sub-functions of the above specification, detailing the number
of the following sub-functions in the above System:
• External inputs
• External outputs
• External enquiries
• External files
and
• Internal files