1.3 PRINCIPLE NUMBER ONE-PRAGMATISM AND COMPROMISE

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1.3 PRINCIPLE NUMBER ONE—PRAGMATISM AND COMPROMISE

The first principle of Software Metrics is that of pragmatism and compromise. Implementing Software Metrics in an organization of any size can be difficult. There are many problems that must be overcome and decisions which have to made, often with limited information to hand. One of the first decisions you will face concerns the scope of the work. There is a rule in software development that you do not try something new on a large or critical system and this translates, in the Software Metrics area, to "don't try to do too much." On the other hand, there is evidence that concentrating on too small an area can result in such a limited payback as to invalidate Software Metrics in an organization. As Darlene Brown, a long term metrics activist succinctly puts it: "don't bet your career on a single metric."

Metrics programs that work seem to be a pragmatic compromise between these two extremes. Identifying the key requirements of the organization and satisfying these, while avoiding truly esoteric areas such as predicting the portability of new systems (if this is not a key business requirement) is one approach that can be used to define the scope of a Software Metrics program. The work of Basili and Rombach, among others, has been instrumental in formalizing this strategy (Rombach, 1990). Organizations such as Hewlett Packard and Du Pont de Nemours who are recognized by many as having beneficial metrics programs can show a portfolio of applied measurement techniques that form a multifaceted program. Organizations that introduce one metric, for example the software system sizing technique known as Function Point Analysis (which will be discussed later), and nothing else, often end up without a Software Metrics program. This is truly unfortunate because Function Point Analysis can form the backbone of a successful program but alone it is not enough! So, help your program to succeed by linking areas of work within the program to specific business requirements in the organization.

This principle of pragmatism and compromise runs through successful Software Metrics program implementations.

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