Quantitative Measurement of Software Architectural Qualities through COSMIC FFP

Abstract

Quality measurement at the software architecture level leads to risk mitigation, cost reduction and quality assurance. Existing software architectural measurement techniques are qualitative in nature. However, quantification of quality measures facilitates the process of effective quality assurance. In this paper we propose a new quantitative measurement technique based on COSMIC full function points (CFFP) and ISO 9126 quality standards. Though CFFP methodology was basically designed to measure the functional size of software at the requirements level, attempt has been made to apply COSMIC FFP principles at the architectural level to measure the quality attributes based on ISO 9126 quality standards. The proposed measurement technique has been applied to the key word in context case study