Topic summary
Software metrics
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Software metric.
Limitations
As software development is a complex process, with high variance on both methodologies and objectives, it is difficult to define or measure software qualities and quantities and to determine a valid and concurrent measurement metric, especially when making such a prediction prior to the detail design. Another source of difficulty and debate is in determining which metrics matter, and what they mean. Researchers argue that commonly used software metrics, promoted frequently in academic research, are not practically useful for software professionals' decision-making. The practical utility of software measurements has therefore been limited to the following domains: