In my last blog, Measurement Defined, I talked about Norman Fenton’s definition of measurement as “the process by which numbers or symbols are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as to describe them according to clearly defined rules." Once we perform the measurement process, we have one or more numbers or symbols, these are data items. Data items are simply “facts” that have been collected in some storable, transferable, or expressible format.
I love to start any discussion with definitions to make sure everyone understand what it is I am trying to talk about. So let’s start by defining measurement. According to Norman Fenton in his book Software Metrics, A Rigorous Approach, "measurement is the process by which numbers or symbols are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as to describe them according to clearly defined rules."
I have been part of the Software Engineering, Software Quality and Software Project Management profession for over thirty-five years now. I have written many papers and articles, presented at many conferences and even written the book The Certified Software Quality Engineer Handbook. So I thought it was about time that I stepped into the 21st century and started blogging.
I love to start any discussion with definitions to make sure everyone understand what it is I am trying to talk about. So let’s start by defining measurement. According to Norman Fenton in his book Software Metrics, A Rigorous Approach, "measurement is the process by which numbers or symbols are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as to describe them according to clearly defined rules."