SOFTWARE MEASUREMENT EUROPEAN FORUM Proceedings of SMEF 2005 16 - 18 March 2005 JOLLY

This paper introduces a price-fixing policy to be applied to software procurement general contractual agreements occurring between customers and suppliers. The price-fixing policy aims at overcoming the limits and problems of “Function Point fixed-price” mechanisms. Basically the policy derives from a practical application of the "Business Function Point" (BFP) technique. Assigning the price of a software supply to a "product unit", like BFP, means assigning the price to functional requirements (measured by Function Points), as well as to some technical and quality requirements. Therefore, this policy includes three classes of requirements: functional, technical and quality requirements, as defined in ISO/IEC14143-1 of 1998 and in IFPUG documentation. The policy applies mainly to large software projects involving new developments and enhancements, where efforts and costs are mainly driven by the functional size , as shown by benchmarking statistics, such as ISBSG database statistics. Moreover, the proposed solution overcomes Function Point standard method limits as it quantifies items such as software reuse, reusability, technical replication and complexity. The complete proposed solution implements a framework that also includes a cost determination mechanism, based on internal business processes, so as to rationalize and optimise the software measurement process during the contractual agreement implementation. The proposed framework is currently being applied by a large software supplier working with the Italian Central Administration , and tested out by other private businesses. Based on our experience some practical, methodological and technical suggestions are made to implement price-fixing measures in the most appropriate manner.