MIS-PyME software measurement capability maturity model – Supporting the definition of software measurement programs and capability determination

Abstract

One important reason for the failure of measurement program implementation is that the maturity of companies as regards measurement has not been taken into account during the definition phase. Unfortunately, the major methods and frameworks that support measurement programs - such as Goal Question Metric (GQM), Goal-Driven Software Measurement, GQ(I)M, PSM and ISO/IEC 15939 - do not address this issue explicitly. This can especially affect small and medium settings, where a low measurement maturity level is typical and where there are more measurement implementation limitations. This is the case both as far as software engineering is concerned and with respect to measurement knowledge. Nevertheless, companies do wish to define measurement programs adapted to the measurement maturity of the company and they want to improve their measurement maturity. There are few measurement assessment models and these are neither well-known nor applied in industry. This paper presents a measurement capability maturity model which supports companies both in defining their measurement programs, as adapted to the measurement maturity of the company, and in detecting measurement improvement suggestions.