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From: saxena@motcid.UUCP (Garurank P. Saxena)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: use of metrics
Message-ID: <5116@berry7.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jun 91 16:29:45 GMT
References: <795@tivoli.UUCP> <35121@mimsy.umd.edu> <4794.284cfad3@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> <35346@mimsy.umd.edu>
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Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL
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cml@cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) writes:

>In article <4794.284cfad3@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> kambic@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (George X. Kambic, Allen-Bradley Inc.) writes: 
>meets deadlines, meets expectations, produces work that doesn't need to be 
>redone, etc.  And they talk to their tech people who, in my limited 
>experience, seem to know each other's work pretty well.  

>>Mr Kambic makes me work by writing:
>>Please explain how you separate software people from the software process. 

>Clearly, this is a contradiction.  Thank you for bringing it up.  

>I think people who discuss metrics programs all too often confuse the ROLE of
>the software person with the INDIVIDUAL.  The roles which people play
>constitute our work.  Individuals are then cast into these roles and told Go!
>So, I argue that when running a metrics program, we want to gather information
>about the processes (roles) which people perform and about the artifacts they
>produce, not directly info about the individual.  Only by focusing on the
>larger picture, the role and the process, can any organizational learning
>or improvement happen.

At the outset, let me state that I am in total agreement with the
fact that metrics programs should be used to improve the process and
*not* be used for evaluating people. However, the real problems with
software is that its done by people and not by machines (ignoring the
translation of programs and requirements by stuff like compilers etc).
Therefore you can *not* dissociate people from the process, as the
people are an integral part of the process. I quote from a paper 
titled "On Building Software Process Models Under the Lamppost" by
Bill Curtis et al, of MCC Software Technology Program, 1987. This paper
describes the empirical results gleaned from studies done by the
MCC team on 19 software projects in various companies and different
project domains. One of the most important factors affecting 
productivity and quality was " project relevant personnel
experience and continuity" and "capability of the personnel assigned
to the project". 

My point is that you simply *cannot* separate software people from
the software process, as long as software continues to be developed
by people. 

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Garurank P. Saxena		"the real problem in software is
CASE Development Group		 that it is done by people".
Motorola Inc,
Arlington Heights, Illinois
Voice: (708)-632-4757		Fax: (708)-632-4430
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