Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!netcomsv!jls From: jls@netcom.COM (Jim Showalter) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: metrics and the SAT example Message-ID: <1991May29.042925.6316@netcom.COM> Date: 29 May 91 04:29:25 GMT References: <24563@unix.SRI.COM> <1991May21.223401.27023@netcom.COM> <1991May22.222646.10571@ico.isc.com> <1991May23.014904.5896@netcom.COM> <1991May24.192101.22317@grep.co.uk> <1991May25.053304.10445@netcom.COM> <1991May28.144418.6332@grep.co.uk> Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest} Lines: 20 >Beach deaths are already an excellent measure of >beach deaths. Granted, just as project failures are an excellent measure of project failures. But so what? We are trying to intercede BEFORE the death occurs or the project fails. >More to the point, such bogus applications of non-causal correlations >undermine similar, perhaps more valid, measures, Also granted. Now, I invite you to provide me with a list of causal correlations with respect to software projects. All the ones I know of are based on experience and intuition into the process of software development--and are good metrics--but none of them have, to the best of my knowledge, ever been proven to be the CAUSE of a failed project. -- **************** JIM SHOWALTER, jls@netcom.com, (408) 243-0630 **************** *Proven solutions to software problems. Consulting and training on all aspects* *of software development. Management/process/methodology. Architecture/design/* *reuse. Quality/productivity. Risk reduction. EFFECTIVE OO usage. Ada/C++. *