Software Development Metrics

Software Development Metrics is a handbook for anyone who needs to track and guide software development and delivery at the team level, such as project managers and team leads. New development practices, including "agile" methodologies like Scrum, have redefined which measurements are most meaningful and under what conditions you can benefit from them. This practical book identifies key characteristics of organizational structure, process models, and development methods so that you can select the appropriate metrics for your team. It describes the uses, mechanics, and common abuses of a number of metrics that are useful for steering and for monitoring process improvement. The insights and techniques in this book are based entirely on field experience.

About the Book

When driving a car, you are less likely to speed, run out of gas, or suffer engine failure because of the measurements the car reports to you about its condition. Development teams, too, are less likely to fail if they are measuring the parameters that matter to the success of their projects. This book shows you how.

Software Development Metrics teaches you how to gather, analyze, and effectively use the metrics that define your organizational structure, process models, and development methods. The insights and examples in this book are based entirely on field experience. You'll learn practical techniques like building tools to track key metrics and developing data-based early warning systems. Along the way, you'll learn which metrics align with different development practices, including traditional and adaptive methods.

No formal experience with developing or applying metrics is assumed.

What's Inside

Identify the most valuable metrics for your team and process
Differentiate "improvement" from "change"
Learn to interpret and apply the data you gather
Common pitfalls and anti-patterns

About the Author

Dave Nicolette is an organizational transformation consultant, team coach, and trainer. Dave is active in the agile and lean software communities.

Table of Contents

Making metrics useful
Metrics for steering
Metrics for improvement
Putting the metrics to work
Planning predictability
Reporting outward and upward