Thanks for the observations and even more for the kind words. And your observations, as usual[*], are dead-on.

One of the most important things I’ve learned from your writings — starting with my original copy of The Psychology of Computer Programming, which I bought in the late 1970s as a recently minted CS graduate — is the profoundly human nature of software engineering and IT project management. Organizations keep trying to treat it like a manufacturing or chemical engineering process; I think it’s more like a sports team or an orchestra.

Oh, and I hope you don’t mind the “Weinberg’s Law of Metrics” that I coined for my column and re-used in the posting above. ..bruce..

[*] Except, of course, when I choose to disagree or pick a fight with you.

I would add one question to your questioner, up front. It’s implicit in your answer, but I like to ask it explicitly:

Suppose you had this measurement, what do you intend to do with it?

Frequently, I get answers that amount to:

- If I had this measurement, I’d know which testers to punish. (or reward, which amounts to the same thing, since the unrewarded testers will feel punished.)

I don’t bother to answer these people.

Most of the other answers amount to:

- If I had this measurement, I’d know how to improve testing.

To these people, I can usually look at what they’re doing now (eyeball measurement) and give them at least half-a-dozen suggestions that will improve their testing noticeably before they start looking for 1% improvements.

Gerald M. Weinberg
http://www.geraldmweinberg.com