Overview

I considered titling this chapter "Measures of Success." I thought about it a little and instead opted to use the word "for." Measuring is not passive. It is an active, indeed aggressive approach to forcing success to emerge out of a situation. At its essence, measuring is feedback. It is the process of obtaining information to use to guide your work to a successful conclusion.

Many of the measurement efforts in which I've participated have been passive measurement. Passive measurement collects data because that's what professionals do, or because a consultant recommended it, or because somebody's read a book. This is making measurement into a magical talisman, an amulet you can wear to ward off evil spirits. Although amulets may have their place, software development isn't it.

To measure aggressively, you must first know why you are measuring. What kind of feedback are you trying to get? Are you trying to decide whether your approach is too complex? Are you hoping to improve the quality of your product through measuring defect rates? Are you hoping to improve productivity? Are you trying to understand the effectiveness of the systems you've put in place to get results? If you can't articulate a specific reason for measuring, you shouldn't be measuring because you won't use the results.

Goals, Metrics, and Scales

A metric is a method...