Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management

Chapter 3. Integrate Metrics with Software Development

People are important, and people have to solve the intricate problems encountered in software development. It is equally true that collaborative leadership is better than command management, especially in knowledge work, for people do not solve problems on command—at least not well. It is also true that a software development process, clumsily applied, can get in the way of what people are trying to do. Moreover, we might as well admit—for it is true—that when metrics are poorly chosen, inaccurately collected, and unwisely applied, people get upset. When people are upset, they solve problems poorly. To put it in a nutshell, people solve problems; metrics provide the schedule time and staff ...