If you have any responsibility for applying measurement to IT Application Development, Application Support or Outsourced Service supply in these areas, this is the book for you! You may be the Sponsor of a Software Metrics program, responsible for implementing such a program or part of a Benchmarking initiative. This book can help you avoid the pitfalls inherent in such programs so that you make your program a success. SOFTWARE METRICS: BEST PRACTICES FOR SUCCESSFUL IT MANAGEMENT will give you a comprehensive introduction to the subject area. Beyond this, the book provides a wealth of useful case study information and gives a wide range of useful, practical measurement models, based on years of experience across many industry sectors, that you can start to use today. This book is unique in that, as well as giving the technical, subject background necessary to make Software Metrics work, it presents a full lifecycle for measurement program development and implementation. This lifecycle breaks the whole, complicated problem of getting a measurement program up and running into manageable phases; each one defined and described in detail with easy to follow descriptions. Even Function Point Analysis, the break point for many a program, is de-mystified and placed into the context of what it does and how it can work for you. All of this is presented in an easily understood style that assumes no prior knowledge while the experience of the author, gained over twenty years of measurement practice in the IT arena, is such that even experienced practitioners will gain from reading this book. ENDORSED BY THE EUROPEAN SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT FOUNDATION "The European Software Process Improvement (ESPI) Foundation is pleased to endorse this book. We see it as a valuable and helpful contribution to the world wide challenge to achieve real and measurable process improvement within the software engineering industry. Only by sharing experiences, both positive and negative, can we hope to accelerate the improvement of development and support activities within our industry. The author is well known to us within the Foundation having spoken at our annual conference and other ESPI events on numerous occasions and we can genuinely state that this book positively contributes to the sharing of experience that we exist to promote." - Tony Elkington, Director, ESPI Foundation
PAUL GOODMAN has more than nineteen years experience of the industry and particular expertise in the support of Software Measurement and Software Process Improvement (SPI) programs for clients.
He first became involved with Software Metrics while working at a major UK Government department. The measurement program that was initiated by Paul and his colleagues is still running today and that department is recognized as one of the leading UK institutions in the field of Software Metrics.
Paul firmly believes that using data to enable better management is vital within IT. If you have data you gain deeper understanding, and with understanding comes a greater chance of improving the situation; that is solving the problems. On the other hand, if you don't have data you don't have facts, all you do have is opinion.
The other main area within Software Metrics that Paul focuses on is implementation. Still today, too many measurement initiatives within IT organizations fail the implementation hurdle. There are many reasons for these failures but Paul does believe that some, indeed many of them are avoidable.
Since leaving the Civil Service, Paul worked to implement a Software Metrics program within a major telecommunications company in the UK and the United States. Since then, Paul has worked as a consultant supporting many clients from all sectors of the IT industry. Today he works out of the UK office of Meta Group Incorporated, an international IT consultancy and research organization.
Paul is a past Chairman of the UK Software Metrics Association (UKSMA, previously the UK Function Point User Group), and was a founder member of the ISO WG12, the international working party for Functional Sizing Metrics. Paul was also a member of the "Extended" international IDEAL Enhancement Project team which looked at improving the IDEAL Software Process Improvement Implementation Model developed by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Melon University.
He has served on a number of international metrics committees and was also a founder member of the European Software Process Improvement (ESPI) Foundation. Paul is a regular presenter at international conferences.
