Establishing software measurement programs

In seeking to improve software, companies are finding out how much is involved in measuring it. They are also learning that the more integral software measurement is to the company´s underlying business strategy, the more likely it is to succeed. We propose a framework or metamodel called the Model, Measure, Manage Paradigm (M³P), which is our extension of the well known Quality Improvement Paradigm/Goal-Question-Metric paradigm (R.B. Grady, 1992; V.R. Basili and H.D. Rombach, 1988). M³P helps counter a contributing factor commonly seen in failed measurement programs, namely the lack of well defined links between the numerical data and the surrounding development and business contexts, by coupling technical, business, and organizational issues into a given measurement program context. An example where links are important is in highly technical measurement and analysis reports which do not generally answer the concerns of senior executives. We present some early experience with our framework gathered from several case studies, discuss the 8 stages of M³P implementation and describe a tool set we developed for use with M³ P