How to make good metrics?

 

 

1. What do you hope to accomplish?

Though metrics should play descriptive role rather than prescriptive one, it does affect how people behave.

SLOC or Labor hours

 

2. What data do you have readily available?

Make use of those routinely collected data and suppress the additional time to collect, collate, analyze and present.

Counts of problem reports, SLOC

 

3.   Kiss !

 

4. Do a sanity check

Do not trust those sources that people can easily manipulate, such as timestamp.