CSA Preface
Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T).
This Standard supersedes CAN/CSA-ISO/IEC 19761-04 (adoption of ISO/IEC 19761:2003, first edition, 2003-02-15). At the time of publication, ISO/IEC 19761:2011 is available from ISO and IEC in English only. CSA will publish the French version when it becomes available from ISO and IEC.
This International Standard was reviewed by the CSA TCIT under the jurisdiction of the Strategic Steering Committee on Information Technology and deemed acceptable for use in Canada. From time to time, ISO/IEC may publish addenda, corrigenda, etc. The CSA TCIT will review these documents for approval and publication. For a listing, refer to the CSA Information Products catalogue or CSA Info Update or contact a CSA Sales representative. This Standard has been formally approved, without modification, by the Technical Committee and has been approved as a National Standard of Canada by the Standards Council of Canada.
Scope
This International Standard specifies the set of definitions, conventions and activities of the COSMIC Functional Size Measurement Method. It is applicable to software from the following functional domains:
a) application software;
EXAMPLE Banking, insurance, accounting, personnel, purchasing, distribution or manufacturing.
b) real-time software;
EXAMPLE Software for telephone exchanges and message switching, software embedded in devices to control machines such as domestic appliances, lifts and car engines, for process control and automatic data acquisition, and within the operating system of computers.
c) hybrids of the above.
EXAMPLE Real-time reservation systems for airlines or hotels.
This International Standard has not been designed for measuring the functional size of a piece of software, or its parts, which
- is characterized by complex mathematical algorithms or other specialized and complex rules, such as can be found in expert systems, simulation software, self-learning software and weather forecasting systems, or
- processes continuous variables such as audio sounds or video images, such as can be found in computer game software, musical instruments and the like.
