Understanding Manager and Developer Perceptions of the Relative Advantage, Compatibility, and Complexity of Function Points and Source Lines of Code

Software measures are recommended for the effective management of software development projects. Innovation diffusion theory (IDT) provides perspective for understanding managers’ and software developers’ perceptions of the relative advantage, complexity, and compatibility of software measures. This paper describes the results of a survey in which software developers and managers identified a software measure and then answered IDT-based questions about the measure. Two of the most commonly identified measures were source lines of code (SLOC) and function points (FP). Overall, participants indicated that FP have greater relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity than SLOC. Developers indicated that FP have greater relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity than SLOC. Managers, however, did not perceive a significantly greater relative advantage and compatibility for FP over SLOC, but did perceive FP to be more complex than SLOC.