Software Engineering Measure

A Software Engineering Measure is an objective quantifiable engineering measure that can assess software engineering characteristics (including software artifacts, development processes, and engineering outcomes).

• AKA: Software Development Metric, Software Engineering Metric, Software Process Measure, Software Engineering Indicator.
• Context:
  • It can typically quantify Software Product Characteristics through quality measures, complexity measures, and size measures.
  • It can typically measure Software Process Characteristics via efficiency metrics, productivity indicators, and maturity assessments.
  • It can typically evaluate Software Team Performance using velocity measures, collaboration metrics, and skill assessments.
  • It can typically support Software Engineering Decisions through trend analysis, predictive modeling, and comparative benchmarks.
  • It can typically enable Continuous Software Improvement by identifying improvement opportunities and tracking progress indicators.
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  • It can often integrate with Software Development Toolchains including version control systems, build systems, and testing frameworks.
  • It can often provide Multi-Perspective Software Views covering developer perspectives, manager perspectives, and customer perspectives.
  • It can often support Software Engineering Standards including IEEE standards, ISO standards, and industry practices.
  • It can often enable Automated Software Measurement through continuous monitoring and real-time collection.
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  • It can range from being a Direct Software Engineering Measure to being a Derived Software Engineering Measure, depending on its calculation method.
  • It can range from being a Objective Software Engineering Measure to being a Subjective Software Engineering Measure, depending on its measurement basis.
  • It can range from being a Leading Software Engineering Measure to being a Lagging Software Engineering Measure, depending on its temporal characteristic.
  • It can range from being a Internal Software Engineering Measure to being a External Software Engineering Measure, depending on its visibility scope.
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  • It can feed Software Engineering Dashboards for metric visualization.
  • It can trigger Software Engineering Actions based on threshold values.
  • It can support Software Engineering Planning through capacity estimation.
  • It can enable Software Engineering Benchmarking across teams and projects.
  • It can facilitate Software Engineering Research via empirical data.
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• Example(s):
  • Software Quality Measures, such as:
    • Defect Density Measure for quality assessment.
    • Code Coverage Measure for testing completeness.
    • Technical Debt Measure for maintenance burden.
  • Software Productivity Measures, such as:
    • Function Point Measure for output quantification.
    • Story Point Velocity for team throughput.
    • Lead Time Measure for delivery speed.
  • Software Process Measures, such as:
    • Cycle Time Measure for process efficiency.
    • Rework Percentage for process quality.
    • Automation Rate for process maturity.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Business Performance Measures, which assess financial outcomes rather than software characteristics.
  • User Satisfaction Scores, which measure subjective experience rather than engineering attributes.
  • Hardware Performance Metrics, which evaluate physical systems rather than software artifacts.
• See: Software Metric, Engineering Measure, Software Quality, Code Repository Health Measure, Software Engineering Team Adoption Measure, Measurement Theory, Software Engineering.

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