Diagnosing Metrics Practices in a Software Organization

Abstract

The conventional wisdom within software engineering is that metrics are useful in managing and improving software organizations and the literature on software engineering is rich on advice and experiences on how to successfully design and implement metrics programs. But we know relatively little about the opportunities and challenges related to practical use of such programs in managing and improving software operations. The paper reports from a software organization that has implemented elaborate metrics programs. A comprehensive action research effort has been established 1) to evaluate and develop approaches to support systematic diagnosis of metrics practice, and 2) to learn about challenges and possibilities related to improvement of current metrics practices. We present and discuss insights from the initial diagnosis in the light of theoretical views on information systems for management and improvement of software organizations.