Software Engineering Measurement

Software Engineering Measurement lays the basis for measurement standards so that software developers can begin to share experimental results in a meaningful way. It teaches computer science practitioners what metrics to collect, how to convert measurement data to management information, and how to manage software development measurement systems. The statistics necessary to perform these conversions are also supplied. This technical reference demonstrates how one can develop simple experiments for the empirical validation of theoretical research and shows how to convert measurement data into meaningful and valuable information that can be used immediately for software process improvement.

The product of many years of practical experience and research in the software measurement business, this technical reference helps you select what metrics to collect, how to convert measurement data to management information, and provides the statistics necessary to perform these conversions. The author explains how to manage software development measurement systems, how to build software measurement tools and standards, and how to construct controlled experiments using standardized measurement tools.

There are three fundamental questions that this book seeks to answer. First, exactly how do you get the measurement data? Second, how do you convert the data from the measurement process to information that you can use to manage the software development process? Third, how do you manage all of the data?

Millions of dollars are being spent trying to secure software systems. When suitable instrumentation is placed into the systems that we develop, their activity can be monitored in real time. Measurement based automatic detection mechanisms can be designed into systems. This will permit the detection of system misuse and detect incipient reliability problems.

By demonstrating how to develop simple experiments for the empirical validation of theoretical research and showing how to convert measurement data into meaningful and valuable information, this text fosters more precise use of software measurement in the computer science and software engineering literature. Software Engineering Measurement shows you how to convert your measurement data to valuable information that can be used immediately for software process improvement.