IEEE-1045-1992-R2002.pdf

Recognized as an American National Standard (ANSI) IEEE Std 1045-1992 IEEE Standard for Software Productivity Metrics Sponsor Software Engineering Standards Subcommittee of the Technical Committee on Software Engineering of the IEEE Computer Society Approved September 17, 1992 IEEE Standards Board Approved March 22, 1993 American National Standards Institute Abstract: A consistent way to measure the elements that go into computing software productivity is deÞned. Software productivity metrics terminology are given to ensure an understanding of measurement data for both source code and document production. Although this standard pre- scribes measurements to characterize the software process, it does not establish software produc- tivity norms, nor does it recommend productivity measurements as a method to evaluate software projects or software developers. This standard does not measure the quality of software. This standard does not claim to improve productivity, only to measure it. The goal of this standard is for a better understanding of the software process, which may lend insight to improving it. Keywords: attribute, primitive, productivity ratio, source statement, staff-hour The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017-2394, USA Copyright Ó 1993 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. Published 1993. Printed in the United States of America ISBN 1-55937-258-3 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Copyright The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Provided by IHS under license with IEEELicensee=NASA Technical Standards 1/9972545001 Not for Resale, 04/25/2007 03:26:11 MDTNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS -,-,- Print: ISBN 1-55937-258-3, SH15651 PDF: ISBN 0-7381-0408-6, SS15651 IEEE Std 1045-1992(R2002) Reaffirmed December 10, 2002 IEEE Standards documents are developed within the Technical Committees of the IEEE Societies and the Standards Coordinating Committees of the IEEE Stan- dards Board. Members of the committees serve voluntarily and without compensa- tion. They are not necessarily members of the Institute. The standards developed within IEEE represent a consensus of the broad expertise on the subject within the Institute as well as those activities outside of IEEE that have expressed an interest in participating in the development of the standard. Use of an IEEE Standard is wholly voluntary. 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Box 1331 Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331 USA IEEE Standards documents are adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electron- ics Engineers without regard to whether their adoption may involve patents on arti- cles, materials, or processes. Such adoption does not assume any liability to any patent owner, nor does it assume any obligation whatever to parties adopting the standards documents. Copyright The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Provided by IHS under license with IEEELicensee=NASA Technical Standards 1/9972545001 Not for Resale, 04/25/2007 03:26:11 MDTNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS -,-,- iii Introduction (This introduction is not a part of IEEE Std 1045-1992, IEEE Standard for Software Productivity Metrics.) This introduction is intended to provide the reader with some background into the rationale used to develop the standard. This information is being provided to aid in the understanding and usage of the standard. The introduction is nonbinding. This standard deÞnes a framework for measuring and reporting software productivity. It focuses on deÞni- tions of how to measure software productivity and what to report when giving productivity results. It is meant for those who want to measure the productivity of the software process in order to create code and documentation products. Past software productivity metrics have not proven as useful as desired to provide insight into the software process. Although there is an accumulation of more than 20 years of data, consistent productivity indicators for software development have not emerged from this information. The problem is not as much the fault of the metrics being used as it is the inaccuracy and incompleteness of the data being collected. The deÞnition of productivity states that it is the ratio of a unit of output to a unit of input used to produce the output. For this relationship to be useful for software, the data used in it must be accurate and complete. For instance, reported software productivity of 5000 lines of source code per year leaves many questions unanswered, What is a line of source code? How long, in work hours, was the year? What activities were included? Whose effort was counted? Interpreting productivity based on a single number leaves much unknown about the process being measured. Without knowing the scope and characteristics of the process measured, or the precision of the data used in the calculations, the resulting productivity values are inconclusive. The goal of this standard is to build a foundation to accurately measure software productivity. This is done through a set of precisely deÞned units of measure. However, not all software processes lend themselves to precise measurement. Software development is a new and rapidly evolving Þeld, and it is strongly inßu- enced by the variability of the people who build the software. In those situations where precise measurement deÞnitions are not possible, this standard requests that descriptions of the processes used and the measure- ments taken be done in a speciÞed format. The intention of the standard is to formalize the presentation of productivity data so that it is useful to any- one wishing to improve the software process. This standard is not an end in itself. Instead, it is the beginning of increased precision in collecting and reporting software productivity data. The hope is that this will lead to an improved understanding of the software development process and to improved productivity metrics. Copyright The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Provided by IHS under license with IEEELicensee=NASA Technical Standards 1/9972545001 Not for Resale, 04/25/2007 03:26:11 MDTNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS -,-,- iv Participants At the time this standard was completed, the Software Productivity Metrics Working Group had the follow- ing membership: Robert N. Sulgrove, Chair Christine H. Smith, Co-chair Eleanor Antreassian, Past Chair Nicholas L. Marselos, Editor Bakul BanerjeeJohn E. Gaffney, Jr.Jainendra K. Navlakha Stephen E. BlakeStuart Glickman Dennis E. Nickle Thomas P. BowenLennor GreshamRichard Reese David N. CardStuart Jeans Julian Roberts Thomas J. CarltonRobert W. JudgeBrian Sakai Deborah CaswellLawrence KingSylvia Shiroyama Mike DemshkiThomas M. KuriharaPaul Stevens Sherman EaglesArnold W. KwongWolfgang B. Strigel Ruth S. EulerFred Lau Leonard L. Tripp Michael Evangelist Chi Yun Lin Scott A. Whitmire Al FreundDenis C. MeredithRon Willis James T. FritschLois J. MortonPaul Wolfgang Andrew Najberg Contributors The following individuals also contributed to the development of the standard: William W. AgrestiJack HarringtonRandy Paddock Lowell Jay ArthurWarren HarrisonBruce Parker Jeff A. AuneBruce HealtonBud W. Pezet Victor R. BasiliFrancis B. HerrWes Philp Mordechai Ben-MenachemHerman HessRobert M. Poston Victor G. BereczGeoffrey W. HigginLawrence H. Putnam Robert C. BirssJohn W. HorchDonald J. Reifer Bob BisschoffDavid HurstNiall Ross Barry BoehmRandall W. JensenVince Rupolo George BozokiBud JonesNorman F. Schneidewind Fred BurkeT. Capers JonesRoger Scholten Neva CarlsonBill JunkDavid J. Schultz Sally CheungMotti Y. KleinSuzanne E. Schwab Rutherford CookePhil KoltonCarl Seddio Charles DÕArgenioSteven E. KreutzerAl Serna James B. DolkasWalt KutzJean Shaffer Carl Einar DragstedtRobert L. Lanphar, Jr.Vincent Y. Shen Christof EbertF. C. LimJosef Sherif Violet FoldesMichael LyuDavid M. Siefert Andrew S. FortunakAndy MahindruVijaya K. Srivastava Robert FraleyJukka MarijarviEdwin J. Summers Jack FriedPhillip C. MarriottDavid Swinney Jean A. GilmoreRoger J. MartinRobert C. Tausworthe Clell GladsonRobert F. MartiniC. L. Troyanowski J. G. GlynnJoseph F. MathewsDolores Wallace Robert GradyBruce MillarRichard Werling Dan GrigoreJames MillerJohn Westergaard Amal GuptaRobert C. NataleClyde E. Willis Nash HairStephen R. NeuendorfWilliam Wong H. D. HallKen OÕBrienWeider Yu Copyright The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Provided by IHS under license with IEEELicensee=NASA Technical Standards 1/9972545001 Not for Resale, 04/25/2007 03:26:11 MDTNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS -,-,- v Sponsoring Organizations The following persons were on the balloting committee that approved this standard for submission to the IEEE Standards Board: M. AmayaC. KemererH. Schaefer B. BanerjeeR. KesslerN. Schneidewind L. BeltracchiL. KingG. Schumacher M. Ben-MenacheT. KuriharaC. Seddio R. BirssL. LamR. Shillato S. BlakeR. LambS. Shiroyama W. BollJ. LaneD. Siefert R. BothJ. LawrenceC. Smith F. BuckleyF.C. LimV. Srivastava D. CardB. LivsonW. Strigel N. CarlsonD. LookR. Sulgrove W. ChungM. LyuW. Thetford F. CoallierJ. MaayanG. Trebble P. DaggettH. MainsL. Tripp B. DergancN. MarselosM. Updike C. EbertR. MartinR. Van Scoy R. EulerT. MatsubaraD. Wallace W. EventoffI. MazzaJ. Walz F. FratiL. MillerS. Whitmire R. FriesA. NajbergP. Work J. Gaffney, Jr.J. NavlakhaA. Yonda Y. GershkovitchD. NickleW. Yu A. GodinP. PetersenL. Heselton D. GustafsonS. RedwineC. Hu W. HarrisonR. ReeseW. Perry W. HeßeyD. ReiferI. TrandaÞr P. HindsB. SakaiA. Wainberg J. HorchR. San RomanP. Zoll J. Sanz When the IEEE Standards Board approved this standard on Sept. 17, 1992, it had the following membership: Marco W. Migliaro, Chair Donald C. Loughry, Vice Chair Andrew G. Salem, Secretary Dennis BodsonDonald N. HeirmanT. Don Michael* Paul L. BorrillBen C. JohnsonJohn L. Rankine Clyde CampWalter J. KarplusWallace S. Read Donald C. FleckensteinIvor N. KnightRonald H. Reimer Jay Forster*Joseph KoepÞnger*Gary S. Robinson David F. FranklinIrving KolodnyMartin V. Schneider Ramiro GarciaD. N. ÒJimÓ LogothetisTerrance R. Whittemore Thomas L. HannanLawrence V. McCallDonald W. Zipse *Member Emeritus Also included are the following nonvoting IEEE Standards Board liaisons: Satish K. Aggarwal James Beall Richard B. Engelman David E. Soffrin Stanley Warshaw Rachel Auslander IEEE Standards Project Editor Copyright The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Provided by IHS under license with IEEELicensee=NASA Technical Standards 1/9972545001 Not for Resale, 04/25/2007 03:26:11 MDTNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS -,-,- vi Contents CLAUSEPAGE 1.Overview 1 1.1 Scope1 1.2 Terminology.2 1.3 Audience2 2.References2 3.Definitions3 4.Software productivity metrics4 5.Output primitives.5 5.1 Source statement output primitives 5 5.2 Function point output primitive.9 5.3 Document output primitives 9 6.Input primitive . 11 6.1 Staff-hour input primitive 11 6.2 Staff-hour attribute. 12 6.3 Activities 12 7.Relationships 12 7.1 Productivity ratios 12 7.2 Output-to-output ratios. 16 7.3 Input-to-input ratios. 19 8.Characteristics 19 8.1 Project characteristics 20 8.2 Management characteristics. 22 8.3 Product characteristics. 22 ANNEXES Annex A Sample metrics data collection summary list. 25 Annex B Characteristics data collection form. 27 Annex C Bibliography . 28 Annex D Software counting relationships 29 Copyright The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Provided by IHS under license with IEEELicensee=NASA Technical Standards 1/9972545001 Not for Resale, 04/25/2007 03:26:11 MDTNo reproduction or networking permitted without license from IHS -,-,- 1 IEEE Standard for Software Productivity Metrics 1. Overview This standard describes the data collection process and calculations for measuring software productivity. This standard is divided into eight clauses. Clause 1 provides the scope of this standard. Clause 2 lists refer- ences to other standards that are useful in applying this standard. Clause 3 provides an abbreviated set of deÞnitions and acronyms deÞned more fully in the standard, but provided here as a quick reference. Clause 4 provides an introduction to the standardÕs measurement approach. Clause 5 describes data collection for measuring output. Clause 6 describes data collection for measuring input. Clause 7 describes productivity results represented by ratios of outputs to inputs. Clause 8 provides a method to capture the characteristics of the software process to better understand their effect