Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!spies!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: How do you measure code quality? Message-ID: <1990Jul2.000639.14545@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 2 Jul 90 00:06:39 GMT References: <10865@netcom.UUCP> Distribution: comp Organization: SF Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 22 In article cimshop!davidm@uunet.UU.NET (David S. Masterson) writes: >In article <10865@netcom.UUCP> mcmahan@netcom.UUCP (Dave Mc Mahan) writes: > > Personally, I think there is only one standard, and it is set by the 'user' > of the code. If the software does what it is supposed to do, the user will > be happy. > >This seems all right for an internal, "captive" user, but how about the >end-user of a software product? Must he buy the product only to determine >that he isn't happy with it? Isn't that a little late? Moreover, if management wants to reward creation of quality code (what a novel concept, but how wise), you'd better have a lot more objective was of measuring quality. Bugs reported per time period, effort per bug to repair, changes requested per time period, time DIV complexity to make those changes, several metrics (granted they're mostly snake oil and predict little; let's improve them), all need to be considered before bonuses are paid. Kent, the (unemployable) man from xanth.