Applying manufacturing performance figures to measure software development excellence

Abstract

The Internet of Things is going to digitize traditional manfacturing plants. Apart from being as functional and robust as ever, products required to run these plants will need to be smart and connected. They will have software inside. Producing companies monitor their manufacturing excellence related to these products by evaluating manufacturing performance figures such as delivery time and yield. However, for the time being, no figures for the software inside are measured with similar means. Software performance figures have been investigated a lot in software research and in the IT industry. However, as they are software domainoriented they are difficult to understand for leading managing minds of producing companies. This article demonstrates that it is reasonable to apply manufacturing performance figures to measure software development excellence. This is a valuable element ensuring future business success of producing companies by enabling their managers to control excellence in software development processes.