I’m at the Better Software Conference in Las Vegas this week, where one of the key focal points has been managing people and the culture of the organization rather than just the software itself.

Jeffery Payne (CEO, Citigal Inc.) discussed, in his keynote, how the ‘Measurement Crisis’ is hurting business executives as their decisions are based on measurements from all parts of the company (NPV, ROI, Marketing, etc.) but this is still lacking for software development measurements.

Payne believes this is in part due to many software engineers being mathematicians and feeling uncomfortable reporting low numbers (for justification reasons), or metrics that do not compare or correlate easily. Personally, I recall a few years ago being in a meeting where the marketing manager reported our Web site’s click-through rate was 3.1%. I thought this was an amazingly low number and wondered what would happen if I reported that the unit test coverage rate was 3.1%… I did not know that the industry average click through rate at the time was 2.7% so the number was actually very good.

This has been a familiar theme in all of the measurement/metrics sessions I’ve attended this week – read behind the numbers! Understanding the metrics reported is vital to success if you are going to use them to good effect.

This is a cultural issue, and Payne recommends that managers should start by getting teams measuring something to get them interested and comfortable with the process.
This is something we advocate strongly. Starting to measure something, even if the numbers are initially low, and tracking them to see the metrics increase for the better is not only the beginning of a better quality process, but is motivational and encourages people to extend the measurement process into other areas. For example, start by tracking unit test pass rates, and once you are comfortable with the process, move on to coverage.

Alan Shalloway, CEO of NetObjectives, discussed how ‘Sustaining the code is different from sustaining the team.’ In the midst of much discussion about tools and results, this excellent point is often missed by organizations looking to implement quality processes. Sometimes, focusing on all the tools available can blind you to the most important part of the organization – the people. Shalloway went on to explain how Lean, Agile and Scrum processes can facilitate motivation and getting the best out of the team.

The agile sessions attracted most people and the low number of attendees at some of the great metric/measurement sessions was disappointing. On the basis of the many questions asked at these sessions though, metrics seems to be an area of discovery for many organizations, so I expect these numbers to be on the increase in the future.

As the conference is in Las Vegas, there were numerous gambling-related anecdotes and quotes, the best of which included:

“The similarity between software development and poker is that they are both very expensive when done poorly.”

and

“The difference between software development and poker is that bluffing [lying] is an acceptable strategy in both.”

And my personal favorite from Payson Hall (Catalysis Group) in his keynote on risk management:

“You all know how [brittle] software is. Do you know how many lines of code there are in a Boeing 747? And yet you all chose to fly here…”