title: How to determine the size of a project (lines of code, function points, other)
body: <p>How would you evaluate project size?  </p>
  
  <p><strong>Part A:</strong> Before you start a project.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Part B:</strong> For a complete project.  </p>
  
  <p>I am interested in comparing unrelated projects.  Here are some options:</p>
  
  <p>1) Lines of code.  </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>I know that this is not a good metric of productivity but is this a reasonable measure of project size?  </li>
  <li>If I wanted to estimate how long it would take to recreate a project would this be a reasonable way to do it?  How many lines of code should I estimate a day?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>2) Function Points.  </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Functions points are defined as the number of: 
  
  <ul>
  <li>inputs</li>
  <li>outputs</li>
  <li>inquires</li>
  <li>internal files</li>
  <li>external interfaces</li>
  </ul></li>
  <li>Anyone have a veiw point on whether this is a good measure?  </li>
  <li>Is there a way to **actually do this?  </li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Does anyone have another solution?  Hours taken seems like it could be a useful metric but not solely.  If I ask you what is a "bigger program" and give you two programs how would you approach the question?  </p>
  
  <p>I have seen several discussions of this on stackover flow but most discuss how to measure programmer productivity.  I am more interested in project size.  </p>