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>From bhass Mon Nov  8 13:57:32 1993
To: 7_60_prj, jake@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com
Subject: Software Development Metrics



The Pizza Metric
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        How:    Count the number of pizza boxes in the lab.
        What:   Measures the amount of schedule under-estimation.
                If people are spending enough after-hours time
                working on the project that they need to have
                meals delivered to the office, then there has
                obviously been a mis-estimation somewhere.



The Creeping Feature Metric
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        How:    Count the number of features added to the project after
                the design has been signed off, but that were not requested
                by any requirements definition.
        What:   This measures schedule slack.  If the team has time to add
                features that are not necessary, then there was too much 
                time allocated to a schedule task.


The Aspirin Metric
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        How:    Maintain a centrally-located aspirin bottle for use
                by the team.  At the beginning and end of each month,
                count the number of aspirin remaining aspirin in the 
                bottle.
        What:   Measures stress suffered by the team during the project.
                This most likely indicates poor project design in the
                early phases, which causes over-expenditure of effort
                later on.  In the early phases, high aspirin-usage
                probably indicates that the product's goals or other
                parameters were poorly defined.


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