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From: jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: bridge building and discipline
Message-ID: <1991May17.193945.11589@netcom.COM>
Date: 17 May 91 19:39:45 GMT
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>The problem is comparing apples and figs.  In the industries in which
>metrics have been used successfully, they have been applied to the
>manufacturing and service processes of the industries.  No one has ever
>successfully applied metrics to the design and development  processes 
>of any industry outside of software.  So why would anyone who is not a 
>sleepwalker conclude that metrics could be successfully applied to the 
>design and development process in software?

I think the apples and figs here are due to a completely different
perspective on programming as a creative enterprise. As far as I'm
concerned, programming-in-the-small is a solved problem, so much
so that it SHOULD be treated like an assembly line process. What,
after all, is so creative about implementing 9 line class member
functions? Design is a creative process, but implementation is in
many ways no more remarkable than shingling a roof, and just as
amenable to statistical controls.
-- 
**************** JIM SHOWALTER, jls@netcom.com, (408) 243-0630 *****************
* Proven solutions to software problems. Consulting and training in all aspects*
* of software development. Management/process/methodology. Architecture/design/*
* reuse. Quality/productivity. Risk reduction. EFFECTIVE OO techniques. Ada.   *