Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 5
DESIGN FOR SIX SIGMA (DFSS)
SOFTWARE MEASUREMENT
AND METRICS
1
When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you
know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express
it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the
beginnings of knowledge but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the stage
of Science.—Lord Kelvin (1883)
5.1
INTRODUCTION
Science,which includes software, is based on measurement. To design or redesign
software, we need to understand some numerical relationships or metrics. Design
for six sigma (DFSS) is no exception. Six Sigma and DFSS live and die on metrics
definition, measurement, classification, optimization, and verification.
A software metric is a measure of some property of a piece of software code or its
specifications. As quantitative methods have proved so powerful in other sciences,
computer science practitioners and theoreticians have worked hard to bring similar
measurement approaches to software development.
What is “software measurement?” The software measurement process is that
portion of the DFSS software process that provides for the identification, definition,
collection, and analysis of measures that are used to understand, evaluate, predict, or
1
More on metrics are provided in Chapter 17.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search