A model-driven measurement procedure for sizing web applications: Design, automation and validation

Abstract

This paper introduces the Object-Oriented Hypermedia Function Points (OO-HFP), which is a functional size measurement procedure for Web projects developed using the Object-Oriented Hypermedia (OO-H) method. This method provides model-driven and transformation-based support for the development of Web applications. Using OO-HFP, a size measure is obtained once a Web application's conceptual model is completed. We follow the steps of a process model for software measurement in order to detail the design and automation of OO-HFP. Finally, we present the validation of OO-HFP for Web effort estimation by comparing the prediction accuracy that it provides to the accuracy provided by another set of validated size measures (the Tukutuku measures) that was found to be a good effort predictor. The results of a study using industrial data show that the effort estimates obtained for projects that are sized using OO-HFP were similar to those using the Tukutuku measures, thus suggesting that the OO-HFP is a suitable effort predictor. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.