Software Engineering - Old Questions

12. Write short notes on:

        a. Functional Point

        b. Source Code translation

a. Functional Point

Functional point is an element of software development which helps to approximate the cost of development early in the process. It may measure functionality from user's point of view.

Counting functional point (FP):

Step 1:

F = 14*scale,    scale varies from 0 to 5 according to character of complexity adjustment factor (CAF).

Step 2:

CAF = 0.65 + (0.01*F)

Step 3:

Calculate unadjusted functional point (UFP)

Step 4: 

Calculate functional point FP = UFP * CAF

b. Source Code translation

The simplest form of software re-engineering is source code translation where source code in one programming language is automatically translated to source code in some other language. The structure and organisation of the program itself is unchanged. The target language may be an updated version of the original language (e.g. COBOL-74 to COBOL-85) or may be a translation to a completely different language (e.g. FORTRAN to C).

Program translation process:

Fig: Program translation process