Often, a project estimate for testing must be made at an early stage. In this case, it is not possible to establish factors like complexity, impact and so on, because no detailed functional specifications are available. However, there are approaches that can often be used to perform a rough test point analysis. By using one of the approaches below, the total number of (gross) function points can be estimated:

• on the basis of very rough specifications, perform a so-called rough function point analysis
• determine the number of function points by determining the number of TOSMs (for more information, see Estimation Based On Test Object Size).

One function is then defined for the purpose of a rough test point analysis. This function has the size of the total number of defined (gross) function points. In principle, all function-dependent factors (user importance, intensity of use, complexity, impact and uniformity) are given the neutral value, so that D_f = 1. A test point analysis can then be made as described in the previous sections. Usually assumptions will have to be made when determining the environment factor. When presenting the  test estimate, it is important to describe these assumptions clearly.