THE BUSINESS CASE FOR AUTOMATING SOFTWARE METRICS IN OBJECT-ORIENTED COMPUTER AIDED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

This paper makes the business case for automating the collection of software metrics for gauging development performance in integrated computer aided software engineering (CASE) environments that are characterized by an object-oriented development methodology and a centralized repository. The automation of function point analysis is discussed in the context of such an integrated CASE environment (ICE). We also discuss new metrics that describe three different dimensions of code reuse -- leverage, value and classification -- and examine the p,ossibility of utilizing objects as means to estimate software development labor and measure productivity. We argue that the automated collection of these software metrics opens up new avenues for refining the management of software development projects and controlling stra-egic costs.