Function point estimation - Part II

Hi Gurus,
In this part, we will see the components that we will use to estimate our application using Function Point technique. We have listed the below components are important to estimate our Application using Function Point method:

•External Inputs (EI):
The data coming from a data input screen or other system interfaces. We need to count the External Inputs if our application take input values to function.

•External Outputs(EO):
The data arrvied or retrieved using our application will be considered as External Outputs and needs to be counted in Function point estimation method. This process will be updated in our database file.

•External Inquiries (EQ):
If our application has any report form of output, that will be considered as External Inquiries (EQ) and needs to counted in Function Point Estimation method. We can consider all the report generated files for this case.

•Internal Logical Files (ILF) :
We can say Internal Logical File is nothing but a data file (DataBase, Comma Separated Values file, XML file). This internal logical file has to be counted in this method sice, it has a guarantee impact with our application.

•External Interface Files (EIF):
If our application uses any third party service files (Web services preferably), we can consider them as External Interface Files. We need to count them here since, our application requires input values and values to calculate using them.

These are the components that we are using while estimate our application using Function Point method. We will see how to estimate our application using FP formulae in next part of this.