Metrics in the development and maintenance of software: an application in a large scale environment

The importance of metrics in software projects is well known. Assessing and controlling quality and productivity in large scale environments requires the establishment of software measurement systems for both products and processes. Product and process measurements should be considered simultaneously to assess software projects effectively. Unfortunately, measurement programs are rarely carried out extensively in practice or they just provide a limited set of sample data. This paper reports experience with software measurement systems gained in a large scale environment and describes an approach whereby product and process measurements can be jointly used to assess and control project evolution. In the paper, data collection and data analysis techniques are presented to describe a solution for a real organization. Insights into how to make decisions about software projects and set the goals for improvement are made. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.