[ABSTRACT] Challenges of Using Software Size in Agile Software Development: A Systematic Literature Review

Hacaloglu & O. Demirors

Software size is a fundamental measure for software management. Size is used for variety of purposes such as benchmarking, normalization or portfolio measurement and it is frequently considered as the sole input of estimation. Estimations can be produced for various reasons such as for effort, cost, and schedule of software development projects. Variety of software size measures exists. Particularly, in projects where agile methodologies are adopted, measurement becomes a significant challenge as it is perceived as a non-value-added task and records of tasks such as requirements identification are not always consistent.

The difficulties of applying traditional size measurement techniques in agile contexts however does not diminish the need. On the contrary new methods and techniques are introduced to improve the manageability of the agile projects.  In this study, we investigate estimation and measurement approaches in relation with “software size” in agile contexts. We focus to reveal an understanding on how software “size” is perceived and used in agile software development literature. Based on our review, we present perspectives of size and related challenges. We anticipate that by providing a baseline for the state of software size measure in agile contexts and by revealing related challenges, particularly, in terms of its acceptability by practitioners we contribute to the development of new techniques