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metaprogrammingcode-metrics

How can I write metrics into my software that speak to investors while standing up to geek scrutiny?


Say I'm trying to explain/sell our technology to (friendly) investors and I already have metrics like:

  • 27 custom modules (by number of Github repos we operate)
  • 5 independently operating web stacks (by number of server deploys)
  • 4,000 source code commits (per git)
  • 400 hits/day on our developer documentation

I don't want to get any closer to LOC. What are the top 3--5 metrics that I can write into our software and/or the web properties that document it?

UPDATE

I updated this to show that I really want to program these metrics in, so it's a programming question.


Solution

  • You'll need to write a metric without dimension, a bit like the C.R.A.P metric, where every of your requirements matter with a pondered additive or multiplicative factor.

    I'd advise taking account also of code coverage by tests ratio in the metric, and as well measuring somehow that code contracts (Debug.Assert() or MS code contracts) are enforced.

    I wrote a blog post related to these Fighting Fabricated Complexity.

    Finally, I take a chance to say that we are working on the next version of NDepend (to be released in the first half of 2012) that will provide an easy way to write custom code metrics. (I am the PM of NDepend)