UNIT II

SOFTWARE METRICS
LESSON 7:
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES

Topics Covered Risks

Software Project Management, Software Project Metrics-LOC, Risk analysis is critical to software project management.
Token Count, Function Point Whenever a software product is to be developed, it is essential
to understand the areas of uncertainty, such as, software
Objectives
implementation to be accomplished before project deadline,
Upon completion of this Lesson, you should be able to:
technical problems that are to be faced, frequent customer
• Know what do you mean by software project management changes to software, which will invariably result in extending the
• Know what is software project metrics project schedule.
• Know what is LOC, Token Count and Function Point Risk analysis is actually a series of risk management steps that
We have been learning throughout right from day 1 about re- enable us to tackle risk: (1) risk identification, (2) risk
engineering, software testing, software life cycle models etc. assessment, (3) risk prioritization, (3) risk management
Now I hope you all are very familiar with these terms, let us strategies, (4) risk resolution, and (5) risk monitoring.
now proceed on to the next topic, and that is the activities of Resources
software project management The estimation of resources required to accomplish the
We will have a look into the software Project Management software development is an essential task of software project
activities? management. The resources can be categorized as: (1) people,
Software Project Management Activities and (2) hardware and software tools. The hardware and
Software project management activities span the entire life of software tools support the software development effort at the
the software product, and hence is the primary concern of lower level, and at a higher level, the primary resource – people,
software engineering. It begins with the initial problem is essential.
identification, and finally ends when the software is retired. The project planner must evaluate the scope of the project and
Successful software projects require the understanding of : select the skills required to complete the software development.
The planner must specify organizational positions, such as,
i. The objectives and scope of work to be done, managers, software engineers, etc., as well as specialty (e.g.
ii. The risks to be involved, database, microprocessor) requirements. The number of people
iii. The resources to be required, required for a software development project can be determined
iv. The effort (or cost) to be expended, and only after an estimate of software development effort (e.g.
person-months) is made. Techniques for estimating effort are
v. The schedule to be followed.
discussed in detail in a later section.
Objectives and Scope Hardware is also a tool for software development, and it should
In order to commence a software project plan, the objectives be considered in at least two categories. The development
and scope of the project must be established, the alternate system that will be used during the software development, and
solutions to the problem must be considered, and the technical the target system on which the software will be eventually
and management constraints must be identified. This installed.
information will help to define (1) reasonable estimates of the
Software is used to aid in the development of new software, in
cost, (2) a realistic breakdown of project tasks, and (3) a
a manner similar to the use of hardware as a tool. Software
manageable project schedule which will indicate project progress.
engineers use a tool set called computer-aided software
The objectives and scope are defined by the software developer
engineering (CASE). CASE tools include:
and the customer. The objectives identify the overall goals of
the project, and the scope identifies the primary functions that 1. Analysis and Design Tools
the software is to accomplish and attempts to specify the 2. Programming Tools and
bounds to each of the software functions. 3. Integration and Testing Tools.
The alternate solutions can be considered once the objectives Estimation
and scope of the software project are known. The alternate Software project planning requires the estimation of human
solutions provide managers and software practitioners to select effort usually in person-months, chronological project duration
the best approach under the constraints imposed, such as in calendar time, and cost (in rupees/dollars) must be derived.
delivery deadlines, budgetary restrictions, availability of
personnel, etc. A variety of estimation techniques are available for software
project development. Each technique has its own strengths and

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24 3E.253
weaknesses. However, all of them have the following common The cost and effort required to build the software, the number

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES

characteristics: of lines of codes produced, and other direct measures are
• Scope of project must be established in advance. relatively easy to collect. However the quality and functionality
of the software, or its efficiency or maintainability, are more
• Software metrics (i.e., past measurements) are used as basis
difficult to assess and hence are measured indirectly.
for new estimates.
We can further categorize the software metrics domain as
• Software project is broken into components or tasks, which
follows:
are then estimated individually.
• Productivity metrics-focus on the output of the software
Scheduling, Tracking and Control engineering process
Software project scheduling is similar to scheduling for any
• Quality metrics-provide indication on how closely software
engineering project. A set of project tasks is identified, and
interdependencies among them are established. The effort conforms to implicit and explicit customer requirements
required for each task is estimated. People and other resources • Technical metrics-focus on the inherent attributes of the
are assigned. A “task network” for the software development software, such as, logical complexity, degree of modularity,
project is created, and a time-line schedule is developed. etc.
Tracking and control activities commence immediately after the • Size-oriented metrics-provide indication on direct
development schedule has been established. The project measures of software engineering output and quality
manager tracks each task noted in the schedule. If the task falls • Function-oriented metrics-provide indication on indirect
behind schedule, the manager can use project management measures of software
tools to determine the impact of schedule slippage. Necessary
Summary
rescheduling of resources, and reordering of tasks are
Measurement enables managers and practitioners to improve
performed to accommodate the problem that is uncovered.
the software process; assist in the planning, tracking, and
Control of software development is better in this manner.
control of a software project; and assess the quality of the
Now we have seen the various project management activities product(software) that is produced. Measures of specific
that has to be taken care of while working on a project. Project attributes of the process, project, and product are used to
metrics is one of the activities of project management. Let us compute software metrics. These metrics can be analyzed to
see what do you mean by software project metrics. provide indicators that guide management and technical actions.
What do you mean by software project metrics?
Exercise
Software Project Metrics 1. What are the various project management activities?
Software metrics refers to a broad range of measures for
2. What do you mean by project metrics, Explain?
computer software. Within the context of software
management, productivity and quality metrics – measures of 3. What is an indirect measure and why are such measures
software development “output” as a function of effort applied common in software metrics work?
and measures of the “fitness for use” are the primary concerns. Project Assignment
For planning and estimating purposes, historical data is of 1. Make an appointment to visit an information system project
concern. manager (or system analyst). What techniques does he or she
Measuring Software use to plan and control projects? Why? Is project
Software is measured for many purposes: management software used? If so, what does the project
4. To indicate the quality of the product; manager like and dislike?
5. To assess the productivity of the people who produce the Further Readings and Information Sources
software; Software process improvement has received a significant
6. To assess the benefits in terms of the productivity and amount of attention over the past decade. Since measurement
quality; and software metrics is key to successfully improving the
software process, many books on SPI also discuss metrics.
7. To form a baseline for estimation; and Worth while additions to the literature include:
8. To help justify requests for new tools or additional training. Garmus, D and D. Herron, Measuring the software process: A
Direct measures of the software engineering process include Practical guide to Functional Measurements, Prentice-Hall, 1996.
cost and effort applied. Direct measures of the software Humphrey, W., Introduction to the Team Software Process,
product include lines of code (LOC) produced, execution time, Addison-Wesley Longman, 2000.
memory size and defects reported over some specified time
interval. The news letter IT metrics (edited by Howard Rubin and
published by Cutter Information services ) presents useful
Indirect measures of the product include functionality, quality, commentary on the state of software metrics in the industry.
complexity, efficiency, reliability, maintainability, and many other The magazines Cutter IT Journal and software Development
quality attributes. have regular articles and entire features dedicated to software
metrics.

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 A wide variety of information sources on software related
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES

topics and management is available on the Internet. An up-to-

date list of World Wide Web references that are relevant to
software can be found at the SEPA Web site:
http://www.mhhe.com/engcs/compsci/pressman/resources/
process-metrics.mhtml
Notes

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