242296

S.Ragavi
II MSc[CS]
Nadar Saraswathi college of arts and science
Theni

Software Metrics
 A software metric is a measure of software
characteristics which are measurable or countable.
Software metrics are valuable for many reasons,
including measuring software performance, planning
work items, measuring productivity, and many other
uses.
 Within the software development process, many
metrics are that are all connected. Software metrics are
similar to the four functions of management:
Planning, Organization, Control, or Improvement

Classification of Software Metrics
Software metrics can be classified into two types as
follows:
1. Product Metrics: These are the measures of various
characteristics of the software product. The two important
software characteristics are:
Size and complexity of software.
Quality and reliability of software.
These metrics can be computed for different stages of SDLC.
2. Process Metrics: These are the measures of various
characteristics of the software development process. For
example, the efficiency of fault detection. They are used to
measure the characteristics of methods, techniques, and
tools that are used for developing software.

Types of Metrics
 Internal metrics: Internal metrics are the metrics used for
measuring properties that are viewed to be of greater
importance to a software developer. For example, Lines of
Code (LOC) measure.
 External metrics: External metrics are the metrics used
for measuring properties that are viewed to be of greater
importance to the user, e.g., portability, reliability,
functionality, usability, etc.
 Hybrid metrics: Hybrid metrics are the metrics that
combine product, process, and resource metrics. For
example, cost per FP where FP stands for Function Point
Metric.

Project metrics:
Project metrics are the metrics used by the project
manager to check the project's progress. Data from the
past projects are used to collect various metrics, like time
and cost; these estimates are used as a base of new
software. Note that as the project proceeds, the project
manager will check its progress from time-to-time and
will compare the effort, cost, and time with the original
effort, cost and time. Also understand that these metrics
are used to decrease the development costs, time efforts
and risks. The project quality can also be improved. As
quality improves, the number of errors and time, as well
as cost required, is also reduced.

Advantage of Software Metrics
 For analysis, comparison, and critical study of different programming
language concerning their characteristics.
 In comparing and evaluating the capabilities and productivity of
people involved in software development.
 In the preparation of software quality specifications.
 In the verification of compliance of software systems requirements and
specifications.
 In making inference about the effort to be put in the design and
development of the software systems.
 In getting an idea about the complexity of the code.
 In taking decisions regarding further division of a complex module is to
be done or not.
 In guiding resource manager for their proper utilization.
 In comparison and making design tradeoffs between software
development and maintenance cost.

Disadvantage of Software Metrics
 The application of software metrics is not always easy, and
in some cases, it is difficult and costly.
 The verification and justification of software metrics are
based on historical/empirical data whose validity is
difficult to verify.
 These are useful for managing software products but not
for evaluating the performance of the technical staff.
 The definition and derivation of Software metrics are
usually based on assuming which are not standardized and
may depend upon tools available and working
environment.
 Most of the predictive models rely on estimates of certain
variables which are often not known precisely.

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