Where is the wisdom we have lost in
Monday, December 31st, 2007Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot 26.1 Using Measurement Developers tend to be leery of how measurement data will be used. Both managers and developers think that managers manipulate measurement data at least one-third of the time (Hall and Fenton 1994), When developers can’t see what’s being done with the data, they lose confidence in the measurement program. A poorly implemented metrics program can actually damage developer morale. When an organization does provide feedback on measurement data, developers are enthusiastic about the measurement program. With feedback, they say that the measurement program is “quite useful” or “very useful” about 90 percent of the time. When an organization doesn’t provide feedback, they say the measurement program is “quite useful” or “very useful” only about 60 percent of the time (Hall and Fenton 1994). Another way to increase developer enthusiasm is to ask developers to participate in the design of the data-collection forms. If you do, the data you collect will be better, and your invitation “will improve the likelihood of their buy-in (Basili and McGarry 1995). Baseline report One specialized kind of feedback that measurement organizations provide is an annual software-baseline report. The baseline report is similar to an annual financial report, but it describes the state of the organization’s software- development capability. It includes summaries of the projects conducted that year; strengths and weaknesses in the areas of people, process, product, and technology; staffing levels; schedules; productivity levels; and quality levels. It describes non-software personnel’s perceptions of the software- development organization and the development organization’s perceptions of itself. It also includes a description of the organization’s existing softwareinventory. The baseline is built on the basis of historical data, surveys, roundtable discussions, and interviews. It isn’t evaluative; it doesn’t tell you whether your software-development capability is good or bad. It’s purely descriptive. As such, it provides a critical foundation for comparing your status year-to-year and for future improvements. Limitations Measurement is useful, but it is not a panacea. Keep these limitations in mind. Overreliance on statistics. One of the mistakes that NASA’s Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) made initially was that it assumed it would gain the most insight through statistical analysis of the data it collected. As SEL’s measurement program matured, SEL discovered that it did get some insight from statistics but that it got more from talking about the statistics with the people involved (Basili and McGarry 1995).
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