Communication Metrics for Software Development

† We present empirical evidence that metrics on communication artifacts generated by groupware tools can be used to gain significant insight into the development process that produced them. Moreover, we demonstrate that such communication metrics can provide better insights in the processes and products than metrics based on code. We present a testbed, a software engineering project course, in which we conducted several experiments from 1991 to 1996 with more than 400 participants. Such a testbed provides sufficient realism while allowing for controlled observation of important project parameters. We present three case studies to illustrate the value of communication metrics and propose a statistical framework for validating these hypotheses. Keywords Empirical software engineering, communication, statistics, structural equations.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1997
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Bernd Brügge, Allen H. Dutoit
• Keywords: Communication Artifacts, Communication Metrics, ICSE 1997, Software Engineering