MeSRAM – A method for assessing robustness of measurement programs in large software development organizations and its industrial evaluation

Abstract

Measurement programs in large software development organizations contain a large number of indicators, base and derived measures to monitor products, processes and projects. The diversity and the number of these measures causes the measurement programs to become large, combining multiple needs, measurement tools and organizational goals. For the measurement program to effectively support organization’s goals, it should be scalable, automated, standardized and flexible – i.e. robust. In this paper we present a method for assessing the robustness of measurement programs. The method is based on the robustness model which has been developed in collaboration between seven companies and a university. The purpose of the method is to support the companies to optimize the value obtained from the measurement programs and their cost. We evaluated the method at the seven companies and the results from applying the method to each company quantified the robustness of their programs, reflecting the real-world status of the programs and pinpointed strengths and improvements of the programs.