Software metric

Software metric

A software metric is a measure of some property of a piece of software or its specifications.

Since quantitative methods have proved so powerful in the other sciences, computer science practitioners and theoreticians have worked hard to bring similar approaches to software development. Tom DeMarco stated, “You can’t control what you can't measure.” [cite book
last = DeMarco
first = Tom
authorlink = Tom DeMarco
year =
title = Controlling Software Projects: Management, Measurement and Estimation
edition =
pages =
publisher =
id = ISBN 0-13-171711-1]

Common software metrics

Common software metrics include:
* Source lines of code
* Cyclomatic complexity
* Function point analysis
* Bugs per line of code
* Code coverage
* Number of lines of customer requirements.
* Number of classes and interfaces
* Robert Cecil Martin’s software package metrics
* Cohesion
* Coupling

Limitations

It is very difficult to satisfactorily define or measure "how much" software there is in a program, especially when making such a prediction prior to the detail design. The practical utility of "software" metrics has thus been limited to narrow domains where the include:

* Schedule
* Size/Complexity
* Cost
* Quality

Too much emphasis on any one of these aspects of performance is likely to create an imbalance in the team’s motivations, leading to a dysfunctional project.

The Balanced scorecard is a one tool for managing a suite of metrics that address multiple performance perspectives.

See also

* Software development effort estimation
* Software engineering
* Computer science
* Software quality
* Software package metrics
* Ohloh: quantitative analysis of hundreds of open source projects
* List of code quality management dashboards
* Software crisis

References

External links

* [http://www.ifpug.org International Function Point Users Group]
* [http://www.nesma.org/english/menu/frsfpa.htm What is FPA] at Nemsa website
* [http://www.methodsandtools.com/archive/archive.php?id=25 Estimating With Use Case Points] by Mike Cohn. Describes the process to measure the size of an application modeled with UML, using use cases.
* [http://www.parlezuml.com/metrics/index.htm OO & Agile Metrics Resources] - includes workshop material on gaming metrics to improve their design
* [http://www.fromthetrench.com/cyclomatic-complexity/ A pragmatic approach to software engineering measurement tools]
* [http://www.sqa.net/softwarequalitymetrics.html Further defines the term Software Metrics with examples.]


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