Software Metrics

Philosophy:

It has been noted frequently that we are experiencing a software crisis, characterized by our inability to 

produce correct, reliable software within budget and on time. No doubt, many of our failures are caused by the inherent complexity of the software develop- ment process, for which there often is no analytical description. These problems can be ameliorated, however, by improving our software management capabilities. This requires both the development of improved software metrics and improved utilization of such metrics.

ware properties to be measured. As a result, the same metric has been used to measure very different software properties. Moreover, we have virtually no theoretical models and a multitude of metrics, only a few of which have enjoyed any widespread use or acceptance.

Faced with this situation, the author has chosen to

indicate the great diversity of metrics that have been proposed and to discuss some of the most common ones in detail. In the process, the underlying as- sumptions, environment of application, and validity of various metrics are examined. The author be- lieves that current metrics and models are far from perfect, but that properly applied metrics and models can provide significant improvements in the soft- ware development process