Month: March 2014

Metrics for Agile teams… article highlight

Which metrics are used by Agile teams?

Link to full text

I was browsing for articles to my new manuscript and encountered this nice piece of work. This article makes an overview which code metrics are used and why by agile teams. The needs are:

    1. Iteration planning
    2. Iteration tracking
    3. Motivating and improving
    4. Identifying process problems
    5. Pre-release quality
    6. Post-release quality
    7. Changes in processes and tools

The article of course mentions the metrics used in each category.

Article highlight: Measures and external quality…

Article highlight: Empirical evidence on the link between object-oriented measures and external quality attributes: a systematic literature review
Link to full text

This article presents an interesting systematic review where the authors set off to look for evidence of correlation between OO metrics and quality. What I like about this paper:

  • nice overview of which metrics suites exist for OO programs
  • nice overview which external quality metrics are used
  • essentially only 99 studies exist which have the right scope and quality
  • the number of studies seem to be growing – even in the past 2-3 years
  • the 20-year old CK suite is still the most popular one

Recommended reading for those who want to see which metrics are the best predictors, when and why.

Performance in software development – special issue is out!

Together with Prof. Hansson and Prof. Bosch from Chalmers University of Technology we had the opportunity to guest edit one of the issues of Information and Software Technology. We set out to compile interesting empirical work on how performance in software development is perceived and assessed.

The link to the full text is available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09505849/56/5

The outcome was a choice of five articles:

    1. Analysing ISD performance using narrative networks, routines and mindfulness
    2. Systematic analyses and comparison of development performance and product quality of Incremental Process and Agile Process
    3. Performance appraisal of software testers
    4. Performance on agile teams: Relating iteration objectives and critical decisions to project management success factors
    5. Evaluating performance in the development of software-intensive products

Each of the articles discusses different aspects of performance of software development – what is important for a team (4), which elements of performance are important for the managers (5) or how to assess performance (3).

I’m looking forward for feedback on this special issue!