Project management for effective software process improvement must be achieved based on quantitative data. However, because data collection for measurement requires high costs and collaboration with developers, it is difficult to collect coherent, quantita

Figure2.Measurementresultsthroughwebbrowsers

combinationsofmeasurementresultsfromthreekindsofsoftwarerepositoriesandtobeabletodealwithdatafrommultipleprojectssimultaneously.

3.1Combinationsofmeasurementresults

Inadditiontoprovidingvisualizationsofmeasurementresultsfromeachsoftwarerepository,EPMalsovisualizescombinationsofmeasurementresultsfromthreekindsofrepositories.Thefollowingsshowtwoexamplesofthem.Bugissuesandcheckins:Figure3representsthere-lationshipbetweenthetransitionofthecumulativetotalofissues(thelinegraph)andthetimeofcheckins(thegrayedverticallinesontheX-axis)inourEASEproject[6].Thenumberofissuesandcheckinsaremeasuredfromtherepos-itoryinGNATSandCVSrespectively.Acheckinoftenoc-cursafterbugissuesarereportedbecausedeveloperstrytomodifyorresolvetheissues.Thegraphhelpsusers(de-velopers/managers)rememberthesituationwhereissuesbyevery leversionswereraised.Tothecontrary,the leit-selfwhichischeckedinCVSmayincludesomebugsifthegraphindicatesthatthereareissuesaftercheckins.

Bugissuesande-mailsamongdevelopers:Figure4illustratesthecommunicationhistoryamongdevelopersintheEASEproject.Theblacklinegraphisthetransitionofthecumulativetotalofe-mailsexchangedthroughusingMailman.Theverticalshorter/longerdashedlinesrepre-sentswhenbugissueswereraised/resolved.Thelight-grayverticallinesmeanwhenthechecked-in lesbydeveloperswereuploadedtoCVS.Fromthegraph,userscancon rmthestateofthecommunicationamongdevelopersandiden-tifythe leversionswhichmighthaveproblems.Becausediscussionsonissuesbecomeactiveusuallywhenissues

are

Figure3.Relationshipbetweenissuesandcheckins

reportedtoanissuetrackingsystem,municationproblemsamongdevelopersbringthede-creaseofsoftwareproductivityandreliability

[8].

Figure4.Historyofbugissuesande-mailsamongdevelopers

Theintegratedmeasurementresultsbasedondatafromcon gurationmanagementsystems,mailinglistmanagers,andissuetrackingsystemshelpdevelopersunderstandcur-rentandpasteventsindevelopmentactivities.

3.2Visualizationsofmultipleprojectdata

paringcurrentprojectswithpastoneswouldbehelp-fulformanagerstoestimatetheprogressofprojectsandtodetecttheunusualstatusinprojects.