What Is the Cost of One IFPUG Method Function Point? – Case Study

Software Functional Size Measurement (FSM) methods more and more often are used worldwide as a basis for estimating/measuring the Dedicated Software System (DSS) Development and Enhancement Projects (D&EP) costs. It involves adopting specified per-unit cost measured with regard to the product’s functional size unit. In this paper we present a case study on tender competition concerning enhancement of DSS of specific public administration institution in Poland where one of the two potential developers offered possibility to modify such system at the cost of 1 cent per 1 Function Point (FP) of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) method, whereas another one attempted to prove that enhancement at such unit cost was not possible to carry out. The goal of this paper is to analyse likely per-unit costs of the DSS enhancement with regard to 1 IFPUG FP. These issues classify into economics problems of Software Engineering Research and Practice.