Improving Software Development Management with Software Project Telemetry a Dissertation Proposal Submitted to the Graduate Division of the University of Hawai‘i in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Ph.d

Software development is slow, expensive and error prone, often resulting in products with a large number of defects which cause serious problems in usability, reliability and performance. To combat this problem, software measurement provides a systematic and empirically-guided approach to control and improve development processes and final products. Experience has shown excellent results so long as measurement programs are conscientiously implemented and followed. However, due to the high cost associated with metrics collection and difficulties in metrics decision-making, many organizations fail to benefit from measurement programs. In this dissertation, I propose a new measurement approach – software project telemetry. It addresses the “metrics collection cost problem” through highly automated measurement machinery – sensors are used to collect metrics automatically and unobtrusively. It addresses the “metrics decision-making problem” through intuitive high-level visual perspectives on software development that support in-process, empirically-guided project management and process improvement. Unlike traditional metrics approaches which are primarily based on historical project databases and focused on model-based project comparison, software project telemetry emphasizes project dynamics and in-process control. It combines both the precision of traditional project management techniques and the flexibility promoted by agile community. The main claim of this dissertation is that software project telemetry provides an effective approach to (1) automated metrics collection, and (2) in-process, empirically-guided software development process problem detection and analysis. Three case studies will be conducted to evaluate the claim in different software development environments: 1. [completed] A pilot case study with student users in software engineering classes to (1) test drive the software project telemetry system in preparation for the next two full-scale case