Units of Measure for Software Development

When using the agile methodology, I’ve done awards using the unit of “each” where each represents a sprint. You could also use each, and have it represent a minimum viable product. I’m working on an award using mVPs as the unit.

@uva383,

Did you ever consider function points? The European Parliament recently recommended the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) methodology for pricing software development. 

Whenever I bring up function points to Government technical folks involved in software acquisition, they usually 1) have never heard of it and 2) like the idea. Just today I learned about simplified function point measurement from a cost estimator. It's not a perfect measure, but unlike other common measures of software development (sprint, story point, mVP, etc.) it's a standard measure.

I’ve heard the term mentioned several times but never actually in use.  It was one method of measurement covered in Agile training I took but nothing more was discussed about it.  I think it requires a level of preciseness that runs counter to the flexibility and adaptability of Agile.

formerfed said:

I think it requires a level of preciseness that runs counter to the flexibility and adaptability of Agile

I think that's a common misconception: https://www.estimancy.com/en/2018/10/02/function-points-for-agile-software-projects/

Thanks Don for posting that.  Interesting.