Towards a successful software metrics programme

Based on the authors' 43 years of combined experience in industry, this paper describes a number of ways to ensure a metrics programme is considered successful. Experiences of a number of industries provide lessons on the planning of a metrics programme, the motivation of employees collecting the metrics, embedding metrics collection into everyday processes, presenting the metrics in financial terms and using metrics that already exist. It is acknowledged that metrics collected in industry can prove very little, but they are useful if used with other data or as a pointer for further investigations. The lessons learned from these experiences form guidelines which, if followed, should give valuable assistance in achieving a successful software metrics programme.