Software metrics and measurement principles

  • Authors:

  • John M. Roche

  • Affiliations:

  • -

  • Venue:
  • ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes
  • Year:
  • 1994

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Abstract

Software measurement is widely advocated as a fundamental constituent of an engineering approach to planning and controlling software development. Unfortunately, there is a dichotomy between the quantity of developed metrics and those used. This paper provides a tutorial review of software engineering measurement indicating the depth and breadth of the field. Individual metrics are not described due to the interest of this paper being on the measurement process and not the products of that process. Generic problems have been identified within existing measurement processes, these provide learning points for the expression of measurement principles. These principles are classified and described according to their position within the formulation, analysis and application stages of measurement. Conclusions are elaborated that suggest that existing measurement frameworks for applying measurement - often called measurement methods - do not provide sufficient support for the principles and their continued use will only serve to replicate the problems. In order to improve the products i.e. metrics, the measurement process requires improvement through inclusion of these principles in a new method.