Evaluation of Software Release Readiness Metric [0,1] across the software development life cycle

Each day, software engineers and managers cope with the challenges of building complex systems and challenges which threaten the project cost, schedule, and technical performance. Software metrics are quantitative standards of measurement for various aspects of software projects. A well designed metrics program will support decision making by management and enhance return on the IT investment. There are many aspects of software projects that can be measured but not all aspects are worth measuring. In this paper I propose a formula for calculating a software release readiness metric, called the “ShipIt” coefficient, with values defined in the interval [0, 1], where the value 1 indicates complete readiness. I am including any and all measurements of the software development life cycle, the development team, and the owning organization and the release policies. The metrics I consider here are measurable in practice. And I hope it may help the software industry in the direction of decision making keeping the eye on business goals. Evaluation of the software release readiness factor at any point of time through out the software life cycle can be obtained by desired modification of our formula which may help in meeting the schedules and the control costs for the marketability and competitiveness of the software product. But as always the business decision has a greater role in software release time so my formula has certain limits.