Earlier there was a call for people who want to think along in various areas within the Practice Sizing & Cost Drivers.

This call was answered by Remco van Beek of the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst). Remco and his colleagues are developing an approach for the application of Nesma counting guidelines in Web and Internet development. They would like to share this approach with other function point analysts.

In a knowledge-sharing session to be scheduled this spring, the participants will exchange their knowledge and experiences in this field. The knowledge sharing session is meant for people who have actual experience in applying the counting guidelines in web and internet development. So, it is really about actively sharing experiences and discussing cases. Each participant is therefore asked to prepare and bring cases and introduce them.

Although the session will have an informal character, we have set ourselves a goal for the afternoon. At the end we want to draw up an A4 “Infographic” with the best practices, do’s and don’ts and references to available literature to read. This result will be shared via the Nesma website.

Practical details and registration

The session will take place at the Belastingdienst in Apeldoorn and will last 3 to 4 hours. A maximum of 10 participants can participate, so please give your name to a.vermeulen@nesma.org. After registration you will get access to a date planner with which we can plan a date together.

Describing the Cost Drivers

After the previous newsletter I also had contact with Richard Sweer. As he showed again in his presentation during the last IWSM Mensura, he is an authority in the field of applying FPA in measuring the productivity of IT organizations. Which “Cost Drivers” have a greater impact on productivity and which less? He is willing to share his knowledge of Cost Drivers, so that we can pay more attention to this on our website.

I am still looking for others who want to think along in this area and want to help. Please send an email to alexander.vermeulen@nesma.org if you would like to help with this subject.

More interested in another knowledge sharing session?

There are other areas where we can exchange ideas with each other. Think of subjects like:

  • Applying the counting guidelines in the current practice of Agile and Scrum project methodology
  • How can we promote the Nesma counting guidelines in the Netherlands and internationally?
  • Besides sizing, what other cost drivers are there? What are the most significant of these and are perhaps metrics known about them?

We do not want to deal with this using long-term committees, but with small workgroups working short on small steps. One or two meetings at a time, maybe online, and then deliver results on our Nesma website.

Contribute to one of these topics

If you want to think along and/or contribute to one of these topics, please let me know: alexander.vermeulen@nesma.org.