Developing a roadmap of contextual factors and their impact on software measurement process efficiency - an industrial case study

Abstract

The utilization of efficient software measurement processes are highly valuable to an organization that strive towards producing high quality software. Nevertheless, an efficient software measurement process is a complex task, e.g. 80% of all software metrics initiatives fail and there are a number of industry-related problems with software metrics. This case study addresses two measurement processes within a large software producing organization, investigating how to make existing software measurement processes more efficient. This study presents a roadmap that illustrates the contextual situation, i.e. the surrounding push and pull factors, and shines a light on coordination activities which would allow for a more efficient data collection. Also, three key factors; support, definition and refinement are elicited and elaborated, with the objective of identifying important areas for more efficient and long lasting software measurement processes.