Software metrics and integrated project support environments

This paper considers how the information needs of managers may be helped by the development of integrated project support environments (IPSEs). In particular the paper concentrates on the issue of obtaining quantitative information about a software product and its development process using software metrics. The nature and use of software metrics and the problems of metrics data collection are discussed in terms of the authors' experience of an already existing metrics data collection system. The paper then considers the way in which metrics collection and analysis can be incorporated into IPSEs and the requirements that metrics systems place on the design of IPSEs.