Software Process Measurements using Software Configuration Management

Software Configuration Management (SCM) is the controlled way to manage the development and modification of software. For an efficient SCM process different SCM tools can be used to collect information about items being changed in the development or maintenance process. Advanced SCM tools include also Change Management which collects information related to the change process in a project. There is a huge amount of information stored in SCM repository and this information can be used as input to Software Metrics for Sizeand Process-Oriented Metrics. This paper describes how SCM data can be utilised for Process-Oriented Software Metrics. To identify the changes performed in a software system, SCM uses Change Requests (CR). By placing CRs under version control, it is possible to measure the nature of change process: The measurements taken on CRs give information not only about the number and type of changes but also about the development process behaviour. These measurements can be used during the development process and in the final analysis of the project. Main advantages of using data stored by SCM is the accuracy of the data, and that it is not necessary to put extra efforts to register the data (they are updated automatically when certain actions related to the SCM process are performed). As an implementation example, the paper presents a change-oriented SCM tool used at ABB Automation Product AB, and measurements showing certain cases of different lifecycle models.