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From: alesha@auto-trol.com (Alec Sharp)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re:  use of metrics
Message-ID: <1991Jun7.173800.23746@auto-trol.com>
Date: 7 Jun 91 17:38:00 GMT
References: <35121@mimsy.umd.edu> <801@tivoli.UUCP> <35353@mimsy.umd.edu>
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>
>A metrics program must begin with a goal.  [ I refer folks to the 
>Goal/Question/Metric paradigm developed by my advisor, previously mentioned
>here, published in IEEE TSE some years ago, don't have the ref at home. ]

Key point (although I must confess my distaste for the overused word
paradigm :-) ).

Developed by Victor Basili it says: Set your goals.  To know if you
are meeting those goals, you have to ask certain questions.  To answer
those questions you need information, some of which can only come from
measurements.

Preserve your sanity - don't institute metrics for their own sake.
Set well defined, well understood, well accepted goals, and measure
only those things that answer the questions that must be answered.

Alec...


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Alec Sharp           Auto-trol Technology Corporation
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