Measure what is not measurable

The most common and accepted way to know something is through systematic study and utilizing the scientific method. Another way to know something is through personal experiences. Through all experiences, each individual constructs a “reality” of the world. The danger arises when this method is the only method since biases develop or information can be distorted. Often, the events experienced represent a biased sample that in turn can lead to inaccurate conclusions. Most biased individuals do not see themselves as biased, and often they defend their opinions with a lot of passion. Basically, the scientific method is a set of assumptions and rules about collecting and evaluating data. The idea is to reduce bias as much as possible, and the proof of the science is the data. “Stripped of fall its glamour, scientific inquiry is nothing more than a way of limiting false conclusions.”

The real conflict is between systematic study and personal opinion. There are a number of software professionals who rely on personal experience and hold the misconception that systematic study and measurement of the software development process is not possible or not necessary. Some believe that measuring the software development process is just too complex.

One reason why software professionals do not measure is because they do not have the necessary basic quantitative and qualitative skills. They do not know how to study a software environment. Many of them studied computer science where there was an emphasis on learning programming languages instead of learning about the software development process. The emphasis has been on writing code and not on the idea of developing software to solve customer problems. Since the emphasis has been on programming, it is hard for a programmer to explain how he or she knows what they know. There is also limited knowledge and experience of what goes on before code is written and what happens after it has been written. The reason for this is because there is little interaction with the actual customer or the person who uses the products. Many developers do not have the desire to know the customers either.