by Susan K. Land, CSDP; William C. Hobart Jr., PhD; and John W. Walz

* Winner of an incentive award from the MITRE Ronald Fante Best Paper program *

Organizations should look for ways to operate leanly and efficiently. Data collection simply for the data's sake is at best inefficient; this data is often ignored, wasting valuable time and money. When measurement data is misused, it can have devastating effects. When applied correctly, software measurement can help the Project Lead or Program Manager do a better job at implementing more realistic software plans, more precisely track and report progress against those plans, and take corrective action when required.

Measurement should be an integral part of any software project life cycle. This ReadyNote will help managers understand

• the current state of the practice and supporting standards,
• the criticality of defining the overall goal of their metrics programs,
• the measures that need to be collected to support the project(s),
• whether the selected set of metrics and measures may be appropriate for their project(s), and
• what to watch out for as far as intentional, and unintentional, side effects of the chosen measures and metrics.

This ReadyNote discusses the motivation for metrics and why so many measurement programs fail. It then discusses typical metrics for requirements, design, development, and test phases, as well as life cycle considerations in implementing a measurements program. The authors address risks in implementing a measurement program and explain some typical mitigation strategies. Other helpful sections include a metrics and measurement framework, and a document outline for a metrics and measurement plan.

• Susan K. Land is employed by MITRE*, a not-for-profit organization chartered to operate in the public interest. She has more than 20 years of industry experience in the practical application of software engineering methodologies. Ms. Land is an active volunteer supporting the IEEE Computer Society. A former vice president of the Standards Activities Board (SAB) for the Computer Society, she now serves as a member of this board and as a member of the Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee (S2ESC). She is also the author of Jumpstart CMM(R)/CMMI(R) Software Process Improvement: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards, and with John W. Walz, Practical Support for CMMI-SW Software Project Documentation: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards, Practical Support for ISO 9001 Software Project Documentation: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards, and Practical Support for Lean Six Sigma Software Process Definition: Using IEEE Software Engineering Standards (all published by Wiley).
• William C. Hobart Jr. is employed by MITRE*. He has more than 16 years of experience in supporting research and development of military systems. He graduated with a BS from the United States Air Force Academy, and he later earned an MSEE from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
• John W. Walz retired as senior manager of supply chain management at Lucent Technologies. His 30-year career at Lucent & AT&T was highlighted by customer-focused and results-oriented management. Mr. Walz is Vice President of the SAB and also serves as a member of the S2ESC.