Structuring software measurement: metrication in the context of feedback loops

This paper presents results of a case study in a software engineering department of a large industrial company. This software engineering department struggles with the monitoring and control of the performance of software projects. The current measurement processes doesn’t provide adequate and sufficient information to both project and organisational management. Based on an analysis of the current measurement processes four guidelines for measurement process improvement have been proposed. Following these guidelines a three-level feedback loop has been developed and been implemented. This multi-level feedback loop distinguishes measurement, analysis and improvement on respectively the project, the multi-project and the organisational level. In the context of this feedback loop new ‘process oriented’ metrics have been identified in collaboration with project and organisational management. Preliminary results show that these ‘process oriented’ metrics, i.e. regarding different types of effort deviations, provide useful insights in the performance of software projects for managers on the different levels of the implemented feedback loops