1.5 PRINCIPLE NUMBER THREE - MODELINGSIMPLIFICATION

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1.5 PRINCIPLE NUMBER THREE — MODELING = SIMPLIFICATION

There is a great temptation in Software Metrics to look for the "silver bullet," the single measure that tells all about the software development process. Currently this does not exist.

Software Metrics depend upon the use of modeling and by definition this involves simplification. We may, for example, model reliability through mean time to failure or defect density, (these are discussed later), but nobody really believes that these measures truly tell the whole story about reliability. Yet they can still be used to assess this attribute of a software system. In this way, they are a pragmatic attempt to satisfy a real requirement for information.

Models that simplify reality have a large role to play in any Software Metrics program but recognizing and accepting the limitations of these models is another major step forward towards making practical use of Software Metrics.

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