Source Lines of Code

What is it?

SLOC, which stands for Source Lines of Code, is a Software Measurement technique used to estimate the number of lines of code that a software will have once it has been implemented. Because a software commonly reach thousands of lines, some prefixes can be attached so that it refers to the right order of magnitude:

• KSLOC

  Thousands of lines - 1000 SLOCs.

• MSLOC

  Millions of lines - 1000000 SLOCs.

• GSLOC

  Billions of lines - 1000000000 SLOCs.

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Estimating KSLOC

A way to estimate KSLOC of a project, is to unite the development team, and discuss the requirements and implementation. Then, each member will estimate the number of KSLOC necessary to implement the system.

Most probably, the team will not reach a unique value. Because of that, each member should give a pessimistic value, an optimistic value, and the expected value of KSLOC.

• Pessimistic KSLOC

  Number of KSLOC expected for not favorable conditions.

• Expected KSLOC

  Number of KSLOC expected for normal conditions.

• Optimistic KSLOC

  Number of KSLOC expected for favorable conditions.

Then, the average of each category for all team members is plugged into the formula:

$$\text{KSLOC}=\frac{4\ast {\text{KSLOC}}_{expected}+{\text{KSLOC}}_{optimistic}+{\text{KSLOC}}_{pessimistic}}{6}$$