The IFPUG Knowledge Café series offers a timely opportunity to explore a question that is becoming increasingly relevant for software measurement professionals: does software productivity measurement still matter when Generative AI is changing the way software is produced?
Over the last two years, AI-assisted development practices have rapidly evolved. Coding assistants, AI agents, automatic documentation generation, test generation, and increasingly autonomous delivery workflows are reshaping the software development lifecycle. As a result, many organizations are reporting significant productivity gains, often expressed as faster coding, shorter task completion times, or reduced development effort.
However, this creates an important measurement challenge. Productivity is not simply about producing code faster. Productivity means delivering more business value with less effort. To understand whether AI is truly improving productivity, organizations need to distinguish between local efficiency improvements and end-to-end software delivery productivity.
In this session, we will discuss why Functional Size Measurement and Function Points remain highly relevant in the AI era. Generative AI may significantly change how software is produced, but it does not necessarily change what the software does for its users. Users still submit orders, update information, request reports, and consume business functionality. Function Points measure this user-recognizable functionality independently from the technology, tools, or implementation approach used to deliver it.
This means that, in many cases, AI changes the denominator of the productivity equation: effort, cost, cycle time, and resource allocation, more than it changes the numerator, represented by functional output. The resulting effect is not the disappearance of measurement, but a stronger need for evidence-based interpretation.
Together, we will explore:
- Why AI productivity claims should be interpreted carefully
- The difference between coding acceleration and true software delivery productivity
- How Function Points provide a stable measure of functional output across traditional and AI-assisted development models
- How AI may rebalance effort across the software lifecycle
- Which context factors influence the actual productivity gains achievable with AI
- Why traditional KPIs such as effort per Function Point, cost per Function Point, delivery speed, and defects per Function Point remain useful in the AI era
- New challenges and new frontiers: AI consumption may become a new frontier for software economics and productivity research to provide a complete view of AI impact on development costs
We will also examine how AI introduces new information asymmetries in sourcing environments. Providers may increasingly benefit from AI-driven efficiency gains, while clients may not have full visibility into how those gains are achieved or shared. In this context, Function Points remain a powerful tool for maintaining transparency, comparability, and evidence-based governance and allow all parties in outsourcing contracts to get benefits.
If you are interested in understanding how software productivity measurement can evolve in the age of Generative AI, and why Function Points may become even more important as technology changes, this webinar is for you.
Curious already? Join us for this Knowledge Café, let’s discuss it together and #Enjoy!
Date and Time:
July 27th, 2026: 10 a.m. Eastern Time / 4:00 p.m. Central Europe
Presenter: Emanuele Richiusa
Emanuele Richiusa is a Director at Business Integration Partners (BIP), a global management consultancy supporting large organizations in technology transformation, value governance, and sourcing strategies. He leads a Center of Excellence focused on Software Productivity, Measurement, and IT Should Cost, with more than eighteen years of experience across enterprise and public sector environments.
His professional expertise covers functional and non functional software measurement, productivity analysis, cost and effort estimation, and vendor governance, with particular attention to modern delivery models. He is actively involved in international software measurement communities and contributes to initiatives related to the adoption and evolution of Function Point–based metrics and currently chairperson of IFPUG FSEC (Forecasting and Software Estimation Committee)
Emanuele holds multiple professional certifications, including Certified Function Point Specialist (CFPS), Certified SNAP Practitioner (CSP), Specialista di Misurazione (SdM – Measurement Specialist), and ITIL.