As a new parent years ago, I remember childproofing household dangers like electrical outlets, and raising adult objects above my children’s reach.  Over the years, new hazards appeared and it took planning to stay a step ahead to prevent injury or damage to innocent children.

I remembered this when I thought about what could be done to avoid software metrics failures – perhaps a form of “childproofing” could avoid a few of the dangers involved.

Software measurement is NOT rocket science (despite the claims of a few eager consultants), but neither is it child’s play.  Measurement must be properly planned or it can actually cause more damage than help!

You likely recall Tom DeMarco‘s famous “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” statement, but may not be aware of his later observation that poorly planned metrics can damage an organization.