Measuring software development status: Do we really know where we are?

Author

Texel, Putnam P.

Author_Institution

Putnam P. Texel, LLC, West Palm Beach, FL, USA

fYear

2015

fDate

9-12 April 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

Measuring software development status has not kept pace with the evolution of software development technologies, specifically programming languages and software development methodologies. A meta-analysis revealed (1) the inability of current metrics to address software status, (2) multiple problems with source lines of code (SLOC): lack of consensus on counting rules, wide variations in code counts provided by code counting tools, wide variations due to programming style and programming language, (3) lack of support from standards and reports, and (4) limited applicability of current metrics to progress/status of each of the life cycle phases. Given such a wide range of issues, it is time to seriously challenge how software status is currently assessed and reported. There is a gap in current measurement mechanisms related to assessing and reporting software status that needs to be filled.

Keywords

software metrics; source code (software); SLOC; code count variations; code counting tools; consensus; counting rules; life cycle phases; meta-analysis; programming language; programming languages; programming style; software development status measurement; software metrics; software status assessment; software status reporting; source lines-of-code; Computer languages; Current measurement; IEEE standards; Software; Software measurement; SLOC; software measurement; software metrics; software status; source lines of code;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

SoutheastCon 2015

Conference_Location

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SECON.2015.7132949

Filename

7132949