(4) Transaction Functions - External Outputs (EO's)

External Outputs are referred to as EO's. The IFPUG definition of an EO is as follows:

An external output (EO) is an elementary process that sends data or control information outside the application boundary. The primary intent of an external output is to present information to a user through processing logic other than, or in addition to, the retrieval of data or control information . The processing logic must contain at least one mathematical formula or calculation, create derived data maintain one or more ILFs or alter the behavior of the system.

Examples of EOs include:

1. Reports created by the application being counted, where the reports include derived information.

Allocating FPs to EOs is very similar to the process for EIs. Again, you perform your lookup using DETs and FTRs, with a resulting Low/Average/High complexity.

As an example, suppose that you have a process that you've identified as being an EO, and it has 10 DETs and references two FTRs. You would go into the following table looking for the complexity of an EI that has 10 DETs and 2 FTRs. As you'll see from the table below, this EO is considered an ``Average'' complexity EO. 

FTRs	Data Element Types (DETs)
	1-5	6-19	20+
0-1	L	L	A
2-3	L	A	H
4 or more	A	H	H

Table 8: EO complexity matrix Weights:

To carry our example forward, using the table that follows, you'll see that an Average complexity EO has a value of 5 FPs.

Complexity	Points/Weight
Low	4
Average	5
High	7

Table 9: EO weights