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

Comparisonofmeasurementresultsamongmulti-pleprojects:EPMmakesmeasurementresultscompara-blewithmultipleprojects.Figure5representstherelation-shipofthegrowthoflinesofcodebetweentwoproject(theupperline:SPARS[10],thelowerline:EASE).Thebothprojectshavebeenproceedingunderthecollaborativere-searchwithauthors’universitiesandsomesoftwarecom-panies.Someresearchersanddevelopershavebeenpar-ticipatinginthebothprojects.Actuallyalthoughthebothhavedifferentpurposesandaspects,supposeherethattheyhavebeendevelopingsoftwaresystemsrespectivelyundersimilarconditions.Theprojectmanagerscancon rmsomecommoncharacteristicsandroughlyestimatetheprogressofthelaterproject(EASE)fromthegraph.Forinstance,SPARShasthetwophasesinwhichithaveevolvedrapidlyforreleasingmajorversions.EASEhasjustreleasedthe rstmajorversion.ThemanagersareeasytoguessthenearfutureoftheprogressofEASE:thedevelopmentofEPMwillstopforawhiletotesttheEPM,toreconsiderthede-sign,andsoforth.

parisonoftwoprojects

Distributionmapsofmultipleprojects:Usingmea-surementresultsfromthreekindsofrepositoriesinmulti-pleprojects,EPMcangeneratedistributionmaps.Figure6isadistributionmapusing100OpenSourceSoftwareDevelopment(OSSD)10,11,whichrepresentstherelationshipbetweenlinesofcode(theX-axis)andnumberofcheckins(theY-axis).Supposeherethattheseprojectsaremanagedbyonesoftwareorganization.Thegraphcanbeusedforhelp-ingmanagersidentify“unusual”projectswhichindicateex-tremehighorlowvalues.

,

/

11We

selectedthe100projectsinFigure6randomlyfromthelistof

mostactiveprojectsin

.

Figure6.Distributionmapof100OSSDprojects

3.3Customizationsofmeasurementparameters

EPMcurrentlyprovidesuserswiththe ingthedatabaseschemaforEPMwhichisopentothepublic,usersareabletoinputSQLsequencesandtocreatebargraphs,linegraphs,anddistributionmapssuchasFigure6.Becausewewouldliketosupportvar-iousprojectsandorganizationswhichhaveownproblemsrespectively,wedecidedtoprovidetheminimumtypesofgraphsandsummaryinformationratherthantoprovidealotoftheminadvance.Afterfeedbackfromsoftwareorga-nizationsusingEPM,wewilladdothertypesofgraphsinthenearfuture.CurrentlyEPMcanbeviewedasatoolforexploratorydataanalysis[5].

4Discussion

Inthissection,wereportacasestudyofapplyingEPMtoourprojectitself,inordertoobservetheactualusageofthepre-de ned5typesofgraphsmentionedabove.Wehaveinterviewedfourdevelopersontheadvantagesandthedis-advantagesofusingEPM.ThedevelopmentenvironmentofthisprojectissummarizedinTable1.

Oneoftheadvantagesisthatthegraphsmakedeveloperseasytounderstandthestatusoftheprojectbyidentifyingdistinctivepartsindicatedinthegraphs.Forinstance,thepartofthe atlineintheLoCgraphremindedthemwhythedevelopmentseemedtobestopped.Infact,alldeveloperswereonabusinesstripatthetime.Thiscouldhelpthem