In-process tracking and measurements play acritical role in software development, particularlyfor software testing. Although there are manydiscussions and publications on this subject and numerous proposed metrics, few in-process
metrics are presented with sufficient experiences of industry implementation to demonstrate their usefulness. This paper describes several inprocess metrics whose usefulness has been proven with ample implementation experiences at the IBM Rochester AS/400® software
development laboratory. For each metric, we discuss its purpose, data, interpretation, and use and present a graphic example with real-life data. We contend that most of these metrics, with appropriate tailoring as needed, are
applicable to most software projects and should be an integral part of software testing. Measurement plays a critical role in effective software development. It provides the scientific basis for software engineering to become a rue
engineering discipline. As the discipline has been rogressing toward maturity, the importance of measurement
has been gaining acceptance and recognition. For example, in the highly regarded software development process assent and improvement framework known as the apability Maturity Model, developed by the Software Engineering nstitute at Carnegie Mellon University, process measurement and analysis and utilizing quantitative methods for
quality management are the two key process activities
at the Level 4 maturity.1,2
In applying measurements to software engineering,
several types of metrics are available, for example,
process and project metrics versus product metrics,
or metrics pertaining to the final product versus metrics
used during the development of the product.
From the standpoint of project management in software
development, it is the latter type of metrics that
is the most useful—the in-proc
metrics are presented with sufficient experiences of industry implementation to demonstrate their usefulness. This paper describes several inprocess metrics whose usefulness has been proven with ample implementation experiences at the IBM Rochester AS/400® software
development laboratory. For each metric, we discuss its purpose, data, interpretation, and use and present a graphic example with real-life data. We contend that most of these metrics, with appropriate tailoring as needed, are
applicable to most software projects and should be an integral part of software testing. Measurement plays a critical role in effective software development. It provides the scientific basis for software engineering to become a rue
engineering discipline. As the discipline has been rogressing toward maturity, the importance of measurement
has been gaining acceptance and recognition. For example, in the highly regarded software development process assent and improvement framework known as the apability Maturity Model, developed by the Software Engineering nstitute at Carnegie Mellon University, process measurement and analysis and utilizing quantitative methods for
quality management are the two key process activities
at the Level 4 maturity.1,2
In applying measurements to software engineering,
several types of metrics are available, for example,
process and project metrics versus product metrics,
or metrics pertaining to the final product versus metrics
used during the development of the product.
From the standpoint of project management in software
development, it is the latter type of metrics that
is the most useful—the in-proc