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Five Core Metrics
The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management

by Lawrence H. Putnam and Ware Myers

ISBN: 978-0-932633-55-2  
©2003  328 pages   softcover  
$43.95 (plus shipping)

Subject(s): Software Industry, Software Management, Software Metrics, Software Project Management, Software Quality & Productivity

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How to Bid, Control, and Complete Your Software Projects Using Metrics

About the Book

To succeed in the software industry, managers need to cultivate a reliable development process. By measuring what teams have achieved on previous projects, managers can more accurately set goals, make bids, and ensure the successful completion of new projects.

Acclaimed long-time collaborators Lawrence H. Putnam and Ware Myers present simple but powerful measurement techniques to help software managers allocate limited resources and track project progress.

Drawing new findings from an extensive database of software project metrics, the authors demonstrate how readers can control projects with just five core metrics—Time, Effort, Size, Reliability, and Process Productivity. With these metrics, managers can adjust ongoing projects to changing conditions—surprises that would otherwise cause project failure.

Insights from the Book

"Whether it's a single company making use of metrics or nine companies finding out from measurements how much difference a new technology made, metrics can tell us that we are doing things right. Metrics provide and enable the following:

  • dependable estimates of project effort, schedule, and reliability
  • control of the project during its course
  • ability to replan an errant project along the way
  • master-planning the assignment of resources to all projects within the organization
  • monitoring process improvement from year to year

"Furthermore, an organization can apply these same metric capabilities to the oversight of development subcontractors and outsourcing contractors.

"But first we must ask, What do we mean by doing things right? We mean that fundamentally, we are turning out software products in less development time, with less effort, at a better reliability level."

—From Chapter 1

This Title Is Now Also Available As an eBook Through Pearson Education at www.informit.com. To Order,

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Reviews

"The book does a very good job explaining software process and discussing different approaches to improving software development. In addition, it explains some of the downsides of software improvement programs. I especially like the opinions about the Capability Maturity Model."

Tim Kelleher
Software Quality Professional


"An invaluable resource for project managers and project leaders. Those managers bombarded with software measurements will find what Putnam and Myers refer to as the 'five core metrics' to be a welcome solution to their metric woes. . . . Those with even a little software management experience should be able to adapt the concepts introduced into a workable measurement program.

"Overall, Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management is a good read for those involved in software project management. The informal style in which the majority of the book is written simplifies many of the concepts introduced and the authors provide good coverage of all areas related to the five core metrics. . . . New software project managers will find Five Core Metrics not only puts forth a plausible measurement concept but provides a great deal of clever insight into the world of software management. Readers will frequently find themselves nodding in agreement to some of the thought provoking and all too true industry tales. Five Core Metrics is also a great source for organizations not directly involved in software management. The insight gained into the world of software management and its metrics would surely benefit any organization preparing to take the leap into the world of contract software development."

Michelle Giles
Stickyminds.com


"This book presents simple but powerful measurement techniques to help software managers allocate limited resources and track development progress."

—IEEE Computer


". . . a must-read for managers who want to bring development under control.

"The book is intended to be used by software development managers, and their bosses, and provides a comprehensive approach to achieving predictability in the software development process."

Joe Saur
ACM Software Engineering Notes


"Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management is a 'reader friendly' instructional how-to guide to utilizing the reliable development processes and techniques that help software managers efficiently allocate limited resources and carefully track progress, ensuring optimum quality software with a minimum of wasted effort
. . . . An exceptional business guide in its field, Five Core Metrics is highly recommended reading for anyone charged with the responsibility if using and creating software projects using or incoporating metric measurements."

—The Midwest Book Review


". . . who hasn't struggled with productivity measurement and improvement? Putnam and Myers carefully and exhaustively explain why conventional productivity metricssuch as lines of code or function pointsare neither precise nor useful to measure productivity. Starting with insight into software process improvement and the Capability Maturity Model, they explain how process and productivity are related, which explains the "process productivity" label. Needless to say, the five core metrics all relate to each other using the updated and instrumented Putnam formula, which the authors explain well."

Christof Ebert
IEEE Software

 

Reviews

Excerpt: "What Software Stakeholders Want"

Excerpt: "Intelligence Can Guide Us"

Excerpt: "Ten Great Truths"

Author Interview

Table of Contents

Downloads
Dorset House Catalog
This Book's Flyer

Also Recommended

Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems, by James A. Highsmith III

Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations, by Robert D. Austin

The One Minute Methodology, by Ken Orr

Productivity Sand Traps & Tar Pits, by Mike Walsh

Software State-of-the-Art: Selected Papers, edited by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister

How to Order

To order this book by credit card directly from Dorset House in New York, please call (800) 342-6657 or (212) 620-4053, weekdays, 9am to 6pm. Alternatively, print out our Faxable Order Form and fax to (212) 727-1044.

To order this book from an online bookstore, please see above.

To purchase at a bookstore, contact our Recommended Booksellers to verify availability. Any store can order from Dorset House using the book's title and ISBN number. Also, bookstores can order our books through Baker & Taylor.

We'd like to make it easy for you to order, so please contact us at any time for help!

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