Metrics

Metrics are quantitative descriptions of a property, product or process. Metrics may also be referred to as Performance Metrics.

Metrics are made up of a relationship between individual measurements, which each characterize some fundamental principal or observation. Examples of measures are Source Lines of Code (SLOC) and calendar months. An example metric using these measures is SLOC per calendar month.

Traditional IT metrics are often financially focused, such as Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). However, IT metrics could also describe productivity (SLOC/Person-Month), quality (Defects/SLOC), reliability (Mean time between defects), or speed (SLOC/calendar month).

Business metrics can be much less tangible, but no less important. These are often drawn from balanced score cards and related to business success in some way. Examples of a business metric would be things like:

• Percentage of successful or failed customer transactions
• Improved speed to market.
• Percentage of projects creating new capabilities versus maintaining existing functions.
• Monthly sales revenue.

Metrics of all kinds can be presented in many different ways. Tabular and graphical presentations are both popular, and appeal to people with different communication preferences. Metrics dashboards are often created using a mixture of tabular and graphical elements, and are configurable to match the viewer's preferences.

Tool Support Dozens of tools are available commercially and in the public domain that support collection, analysis and reporting of metrics. Source Lines of Code (SLOC) can be measured with EZ-Metrix.