Practical Software Metrics For Project Management And Process Improvement

Features a useful collection of important and practical papers on applying software metrics and measurement. The book details the importance of planning a successful measurement program with a complete discussion of why, what, where, when, and how to measure and who should be involved. Each chapter addresses these significant questions and provides the essential answers in building an effective measurement program. The book differs from others on the market by focusing on the application of the metrics rather than the metrics themselves. The author's provide information based on actual experience with successful metrics programs. Each chapter includes a case study focusing on technology transfer and a set of recommended references. The book serves as a guide on the use and application of software metrics in industrial environments. It is specially designed for managers, product supervisors, and quality assurance personnel who want to know how to implement a metrics program.

This application-oriented book shows how to apply proven software metrics and methods to efficiently manage software development and maintenance--to help boost productivity, efficiency, and quality of software projects at every stage of the process. Detailing practical methods throughout, the book covers tips to best measure and present progress, a useful model for understanding organization limitations, possible problems in process improvement illustrated by examples, evidence of what works and what doesn't work, and more. An ideal reference for project managers and professionals responsible for process improvement.n

C. Amting Directorate General Information Society, European Commission, Brussels Under the 4th Framework of European Research, the European Systems and Soft ware Initiative (ESSI) was part of the ESPRIT Programme. This initiative funded more than 470 projects in the area' of software and system process improvements. The majority of these projects were process improvement experiments carrying out and taking up new development processes, methods and technology within the software development process of a company. In addition, nodes (centres of exper tise), European networks (organisations managing local activities), training and dissemination actions complemented the process improvement experiments. ESSI aimed at improving the software development capabilities of European enterprises. It focused on best practice and helped European companies to develop world class skills and associated technologies to build the increasingly complex and varied systems needed to compete in the marketplace. The dissemination activities were designed to build a forum, at European level, to exchange information and knowledge gained within process improvement ex periments. Their major objective was to spread the message and the results of experiments to a wider audience, through a variety of different channels. The European Experience Exchange ~UR~X) project has been one of these dis semination activities within the European Systems and Software Initiative.~UR~X has collected the results of practitioner reports from numerous workshops in Europe and presents, in this series of books, the results of Best Practice achieve ments in European Companies over the last few years.

Practical approach to software measurement Contains hands-on industry experiences

The author explains what is meant by software measurement and how to decide what to measure; how to use measurement to support different aspects of a process improvement programme; how to set quantitative goals using a pragmatic approach to the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm; how to set up a metrication programme and design a data collection system; and how to analyse the software data collected.

On behalf of the PROFES organizing committee we would like to welcome you to the 4th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Impro- ment (PROFES 2002) in Rovaniemi, Finland. The conference was held on the Arctic Circle in exotic Lapland under the Northern Lights just before Christmas time, when Kaamos (the polar night is known in Finnish as ”Kaamos”) shows its best characteristics. PROFES has established itself as one of the recognized international process improvement conferences. Despite the current economic downturn, PROFES has attracted a record number of submissions. A total of 70 full papers were subm- ted and the program committee had a di?cult task in selecting the best papers to be presented at the conference. The main theme of PROFES is professional software process improvement (SPI) motivated by product and service quality needs. SPI is facilitated by so- ware process assessment, software measurement, process modeling, and techn- ogy transfer. It has become a practical tool for quality software engineering and management. The conference addresses both the solutions found in practice and the relevant research results from academia.

An indispensable addition to any project manager, software engineering or computer science bookshelf, this book presents the only broad-ranging economic analysis of major international SPI methods and the first large-scale economic analysis of mandatory U.S. government standards.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Improvement, PROFES 2004, held in Kansai Science City, Japan in April 2004. The 41 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected and constitute a balanced mix of academic and industrial aspects. The papers are organized in topical sections on software process improvement, software quality, measurement, methods and tools, experimental software engineering, industrial experiences, agile methods, software process assessment, requirements engineering, and software reuse and COTS.