Assessment of Software Process and Metrics to Support Quantitative Understanding: Experience from an Undefined Task Management Process


TARHAN A., DEMIRORS O.

11th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, Dublin, Ireland, 30 May - 01 June 2011, vol.155, pp.108-110 identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Conference Paper / Full Text
  • Volume: 155
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/978-3-642-21233-8_10
  • City: Dublin
  • Country: Ireland
  • Page Numbers: pp.108-110
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Software engineering management demands the measurement, evaluation and improvement of the software processes and products. However, the utilization of measurement and analysis in software engineering is not very straightforward. It requires knowledge on the concepts of measurement, process management, and statistics as well as on their practical applications. We developed a systematic approach to evaluate the suitability of a software process and its measures for quantitative analysis, and have applied the approach in several industrial contexts. This paper explains the experience of evaluating a task management process and related measures of a government research agency. The agency had not defined the task management and measurement processes, and the performance data were gathered from a change management tool. We spent six person-days performing the assessment and analyzing data from 92 process executions. We observed that as systematic approaches have become available, software organizations are able to readily apply quantitative techniques.