Software metrics for effective project management

Metrics definition and analysis method selection is often not accorded due importance. Metrics and analysis methods are routinely selected to satisfy requirements of software process improvement frameworks such as CMMI. Considerable time and effort is spent in collecting metrics and analyzing them without realizing the benefits of the measurement and analysis effort. This may be attributed to inadequate understanding of the link between the selected metrics and the underlying processes. The inappropriate selection of analysis method may also be due to lack of understanding about the desired monitoring and control actions. This paper discusses the benefits of choosing appropriate metrics and analysis method based on observations in several organizations. It also discusses the pitfalls of choosing wrong metrics.