In her paper, "Developing an Effective Metrics Program," Rosenberg described a group of "sample goals, questions and metrics. The goals are general and could be adapted with minor modifications to any project development. Questions are derived to quantify the goals. The metrics needed to provide the answers to the questions are then chosen and shown in italics."

Here is a goal from her paper, with associated questions and metrics:

  GOAL: To predict the schedule in order to manage it

  QUESTION: What is the actual vs. expected effort level?

  METRIC: Effort (such as hours worked)

  QUESTION: What is the volatility of the requirements?

  METRIC: Count of requirements, count of modifications to requirements

  QUESTION: What is the rate of module completion?

  METRIC: Count of modules completed

Use your knowledge of measurement dysfunction to critique this set of questions and metrics. In particular:

(a) If you collected these metrics, would they provide you with answers to the questions? Why or why not? What other information, if any, would you need?

(b) If you could answer these questions, could you accurately predict the schedule? Why or why not? What other information, if any, would you need?

(c) If you relied on these metrics, what aspects of your project do you think would be systematically under-managed? Explain your thinking.