Software Size Matters, And You Should Measure It

It is critical for application development professionals to be able to effectively and objectively answer the question "how big is your software project?" in order to provide effective metrics, improve estimation practices, target improvement initiatives, and refine governance and architectural processes. Yet too few organizations measure software or project size in a consistent and structured way; most instead rely on subjective approaches to provide comparison and context. Practitioners argue that traditional sizing techniques are too complex and add overhead. But sizing does not have to be complex. Forrester increasingly sees effective organizations introducing pragmatic sizing approaches that quantify size early in the development process and then applying that information to development measures such as progress, quality, and stability. For these organizations, size provides a currency that enables effective discussions on cost, value, and productivity.