Software measurement

Software developers face the challenge of delivering high-quality and safe software products while managing costs to maintain competitive advantages. Reliable measurement is crucial in addressing this challenge. "Software measurement is an excellent abstraction mechanism for learning what works and what doesn't" (Victor Basili). Measuring software processes and products yields valuable information for evaluating development processes and product quality. Recent successes in software measurement include the evaluation of new development methods, quality improvement programs, tool-support initiatives, and company-wide measurement programs. The German Computer Science Interest (GI) Group of Software Metrics and the Canadian Interest Group in Software Metrics (CIM) have focused on these issues in recent years. Initial research efforts concentrated on defining software metrics, followed by validation and practical applications, alongside critical analyses of the benefits and weaknesses of measurement programs. Key findings in this area have been documented in significant publications, such as Dumke and Zuse's Theory and Practice of Software Measurement, Ebert and Dumke's Software Metrics in Practice, and Lehner, Dumke, and Abran's Software Metrics.