Customer Reviews

Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management

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The authors have impeccable credentials in the software estimating discipline, with Putnam's experience dating back to his breakthrough approach using Rayleigh curves to model staffing developed in the early 1970s, and Myers as his coauthor and collaborator for three earlier books from which this one is roughly based and represents a distillation and refinement of earlier ideas.

Material in this book is not done justice if you go solely by the table of contents. It contains deep thought and a wealth of information that support the five core metrics proposed. After introductory material in the first chapter, this book picks up pace by going into what the authors consider to be the right metrics and why. They follow this discussion with a chapter that shows how they align to a development lifecycle (using the RUP's inception, elaboration, construction and transition phases as a framework). This is followed by two chapters that address the five metric areas, time, effort, quality, workload and productivity, and sizing. Chapters 7 and 8 address productivity and reliability as they relate to the metrics.

I liked the material in the final chapters the most because it takes the concepts in the first eight chapters and applies them to problem spaces such as project control, requirements management, trade-off analysis, and how to use estimates to formulate accurate bids. This material is practical and reflects the real world. Among my favorite chapters are 15 (Replan Projects in Trouble), 17 (Evaluate Bids on the Facts), and 21 (Metrics Backstop Negotiation). However, each chapter in between was also on the mark and credible.

If you are immersed in an unmanageable morass of metrics and want to manage to a smaller set of key indicators in projects or maintenance this book is an essential resource. If you are using Ad Hoc metrics or none at all, this material is an ideal starting point.

Our company has been trying to improve its processes for almost
three years now but our efforts were and are still fruitless.
Although we were recording four core metrics (we were using
conventional productivity not process productivity so I'm
counting this one out) -- effort, time, size and defects
(although not the defect rate), we didn't know their
relationship until now. The knowledge we have gained from this
book will help us renew our efforts next year.

Statistics know-how is somewhat needed to understand some of the
chapters although you won't actually be computing anything. I
mean if you don't know what normal curves, medians, standard
deviations are, then you'd be at a lost. I've bought a book
on statistics to relearn it along with my colleagues. However,
the graphs make up for it.

The book was also somewhat lacking in giving actual values to
put in the formulas. I think I'm interpreting the data
incorrectly because I'm getting very big or very small values
from the process productivity formula. I've e-mailed QSM but
they haven't replied yet but I do hope they will.

Nevertheless, the book is a good companion to other software
quality books that focus on people, methods, processes, tools
but don't mention how to measure them objectively.

Get this book if you're part of the software industry regardless
of your title, rank, responsibilities, or party (client or
developer).

This book would have been good if written 15 - 30 years ago when all of their examples and references where fresh, but today this is like reading a first grade book on the subject of project management.

It is as if the authors never grasped the CTQS triangle, and such of project management. The 5 metrics are so obvious and unmeasureable that it is an exercise in no-kidding, now what.

The continual references to the third rock from the sun and such is just page filler.

A nice title but no beef here (to have a pharase from the time the authors seem to still be living in).

I suggest you find more meaningful books.

I found this book to be very enlightening. It has presented many concepts that are reasonable and applicable to the work environment that I am in. It has been of great assistance and is well written.

Collaboratively written by Lawrence H. Putnam (President of the software management consulting firm Quantitative Software Management) and Ware Myers (a professional independent consultant and contributing editor of "Computer" and "IEEE Software"), Five Core Metrics: The Intelligence Behind Successful Software Management is a "reader friendly" instructional how-to guide to utilizing the reliable development processes and techniques that help software managers efficiently allocate limited resources and carefully track progress, ensuring optimum quality software with a minimum of wasted effort. Five core metrics of Time, Effort, Size, Reliability, and Process Productivity are introduced as a means to measure and adjust ongoing processes to constantly changing real-world conditions. An exceptional business guide in its field, Five Core Metrics is highly recommended reading for anyone charged with the responsibility of using and creating software projects using or incorporating metric measurements.