An Industrial Case Study on Visualization of Dependencies between Software Measurements
Ludvig Johansson, Wilhelm Meding, Miroslaw Staron · 2007
Managing large software projects requires working with a large set of measurements to plan, monitor, and control the projects. The measurements can, and usually are, related to each other which raise an issue of efficiently managing the measurements by identifying, quantifying, and comparing dependencies between measurements within a project or between projects. This paper presents a case study performed at one of the units of Ericsson. The case study was designed to elicit and evaluate viable methods for visualizing dependencies between software measurements from a perspective of project and quality managers. By developing a series of prototypes, and evaluating them in interviews, we get results showing applicability of each visualization method in the context of the studied organization. The prototypes were used to visualize correlation coefficients, distribution dependencies, and project differences. The results show that even simple methods could significantly improve the work of quality managers and make the work with measurements more efficient in the organization.