Keeping Pace

Confusion with what and how to measure is not unique to software development. Since measurements are so common, it is taken for granted that there has always been consistent measures. If the history of measurement is examined, it is found that there was not a consistently applied standard to measure length, volume, or weight until the 1860’s. Commerce, at the start of the Industrial Revolution, was held back by a lack of standard measurements; and the lack of measurement is holding back software development. Standardized measurement helped manufacturing and agriculture facilitate trade and accelerate output, and it will help facilitate software development. A big hindrance preventing software from being measured is software developers see little benefit in measurement.

As a Roman soldier marched, he kept track of the distance traveled. He kept track of a thing called “pace,” the distance covered from the time one foot touches the ground until the same foot touches the ground again. This would be equivalent to about two yards today. Roman soldiers were required to keep the pace. One thousand paces were equal to what the Romans called one mile (mille passuum – 1,000 paces). The leaders of the Roman Army could estimate how far their troops had traveled. If they knew how many pacses or miles it was to their destination, then they could make sure there were adequate supplies. The benefit to the Roman solider, the Centurion, was not being overworked and not running out of food and water. Not running out of resources and not working overtime is one of benefits to the individual software developer of measuring.

King Edward I (1239 – 1307) of England had an iron-rod made that served as the master standard of a yardstick. This master yardstick was called “iron ulna”, named after the bone of the forearm. King Edward I realized that consistency and conversion were key to any measurement, so he decreed a yard divided into thirds would be a foot, and a yard divided by 36 would be an inch. Just like his predecessor King Henry III, King Edward I was trying to prevent disputes in measuring distance and especially in dimensions of property.

In the dying days of the French Monarchy, the French adopted a new system of standard measurement of distance called the metric system. The meter was suppose to be one-tenth-millionth part of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator when measured on a straight line running from Paris. Thomas Jefferson wanted the United States to be the second country to adopt the metric system, but the US Congress rejected this idea. In 1863, the International Statistical Congress, held in Berlin, Germany, was in strong agreement that uniformity in weights and measures was of the highest importance, but they could not agree on what those weights and standards needed to be. Another attempt was made in 1875; and this time seventeen countries entered into a treaty and established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Today, most of the world, with the exception of the USA, uses the metric system to measure distance.

Just like standardization of weights and measures, there have been many attempts to standardize measurements in software development. The International Standards organization (ISO) has developed several standards to provide guidance on how to measure the software development process. One of the better books outlining the history of ISO is Software Quality Measurement Concepts and Approaches edited by Ravi Kumar Jain. The problem with developing standards is that they will not be implemented unless there is clear benefit to the implementation of measurements. There have been many unsuccessful attempts to adopt the meter standard in the USA. In 1975 the US Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act. The law designated the metric system as the preferred system of weights and measures for the United States trade and commerce. It has been over 30 years, and the US has still not adopted the metric system.