Estimating with Enhanced Object Points vs. Function Points

In the research community Function Points is considered as a de facto standard. Even according to Gartner Group "function points will provide the primary means for measuring application size, reaching a penetration of approximately 50% of development organisations by the year 2000" (Hotle, 1996). We do not know what sources this conjecture is based upon. However, we observe that in many major companies, like Andersen Consulting, Function Points are not used to size software for estimating purposes. In stead, various kinds of what we refer to as Enhanced Object Points (EOP) are used by project managers and other practitioners to size the product and estimate the effort. This paper describes EOP and compares the two metrics and points out some reasons why many practitioners may prefer Enhanced Object Points to Function Points.