Master Thesis
Radboud University Nijmegen
August 2013

The software development paradigm shift from waterfall-like methods to Agile development brings us a lot of benefits. The control of scope, estimations and productivity measurements once useful for incremental development, like Function Point Analysis (FPA) should be able to cope with the paradigm shift as well. While some sizing experts attempt to solve it by introducing new sizing methods, FPA still is widely used as the de facto standard for functional size measurement. By combining principles used in the application of COSMIC, as well as the early sizing and enhancement project sizing as proposed by Nesma, an attempt is made to use FPA in an Agile context.

After the principles of the Agile paradigm and functional software sizing are discussed, a new combined approach called Nesma Agile FPA (NAFPA) is presented as a method for project control and estimations in Agile development. This method is applied in a case study to give an indication of its usability in an agile context. This shows the possibility to apply Nesma FPA in Agile environments, but cannot give a definite answer on whether it is wise to do so. Furthermore it will show some problems that are part of the method, and directs to possible solutions that could help in the usage of NAFPA in software development projects.