Developing a roadmap of contextual factors and their impact on software measurement process efficiency - an industrial case study

Abstract: The utilization of efficient software measurement processes are highly valuable to an organization that strive towards producing high quality software. Nevertheless, an efficient software measurement process is a complex task, e.g. 80% of all software metrics initiatives fail and there are a number of industry-related problems with software metrics. This case study addresses two measurement processes within a large software producing organization, investigating how to make existing software measurement processes more efficient. This study presents a roadmap that illustrates the contextual situation, i.e. the surrounding push and pull factors, and shines a light on coordination activities which would allow for a more efficient data collection. Also, three key factors; support, definition and refinement are elicited and elaborated, with the objective of identifying important areas for more efficient and long lasting software measurement processes.