Software Metric

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What Does Software Metric Mean?

Software metrics are measures of the success of a software process. In theory, metrics can help to improve the development process and provide companies with information that makes future projects more predictable, efficient, etc.

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Techopedia Explains Software Metric

Measuring what is “good” when it comes to software is very difficult. Ideally, a metric is quantitative, but so much is subjective, that it is difficult to be completely this way. For example, you could measure a programmer’s efficiency by the number of lines of code he/she produces in a day. Looking at sheer volume completely ignores quality of work. More code isn’t better. Often, more code is in fact a negative if the problem can be solved more elegantly.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.