Developers don't need Function Points

[Ian Alyss]

From the discussion on Comptage automatisé des points de fonction I came across a blog from Jean-Pierre Fayolle in which he referred to a few blogs he had written on Qualilogy.

There he discusses why so few developers use Function Points. I think that that’s the wrong question to answer, because developers don’t need function points. Since Nesma has a large Function Point community, I think it’s interesting to hear what you have to say about this.

How many of you call themselves developer?

I believe that developers should not be the target group for Function Points. Function Points are used to describe value of the software in the sense that you can put a number on the amount of functionality it offers, the amount of time the development team has or will put into it to build the software or the amount of money you have to pay the supplier to get the software you want. Those types of value are usually not the things a developer is interested in. Those types of value are in the interest of Business Owners, Business Analysts, Information Managers, Project Managers and the like. We should ask ourselves the question why they don’t “buy” Points de fonction.

I think the problem with Function Points is that it needs “technical” input (from a business perspective) that Business Analysts, Information Managers or Project Managers do not have or understand. If they don’t have or understand the input for Function Points, they will not buy the number that should display the value of the software they are interested in.

[Frank Vogelezang]

Ian,

je ne suis pas développeur, mais j'ai une expérience similaire en ce qui concerne les développeurs qui ne sont pas intéressés par les points de fonction. Ce n'est pas une chose technique, donc pas intéressant. Je ne suis pas d'accord que les gens n'achètent pas de points de fonction, car c'est trop technique. Les personnes responsables de l'argent (le responsable de l'information côté client et le chef de projet côté fournisseur) sont assez friands de points de fonction, quand cela fait partie du contrat. Le problème c'est qu'au niveau supérieur il n'y a pas “acheter” pour les points de fonction, donc ça ne fait pas partie du contrat.

[Auteur]

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