Relative Metrics Effecting Software Development Process

Abstract

These days software organisations run like businesses, trying to deliver what they promise- on schedule and within budget. The potential customers are from varied fields like aerospace, process control, medical, petrochemical and telecommunication industries. These varied customers have varied demands that make the development process very complex. The software development organisations have to manage these complex systems in a competitive market, which cannot be understood at intuitive level. Further, a system is dynamic; that is, it keeps on changing rapidly. Failure to confront this change with adequate tools leads to a failure of management control. For maintaining and improving the development process, process needs to be evaluated. This evaluation can be either internal or external. Both these factors are. taken up individually and do not consider others viewpoint. Factors such as market demands, strategic issues and competitors are neglected when evaluating internally. On the uther hand, the internal capabilities and possibilities to fulfill "new market demands are not considered when evaluating external factors. The main aim of thesis is to develop metrics that effect the software process taking operational and strategic issues in one evaluation. It also visualizes the evolution of these metrics in the software development process of different companies.