GQM+Strategies: A Comprehensive Methodology for Aligning Business Strategies with Software Measurement

TL;DR

The paper introduces GQM+Strategies, an extension of the GQM approach, to explicitly link software measurement goals with higher-level business strategies, enhancing organizational alignment and decision-making.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive methodology that connects software measurement goals directly to organizational goals, addressing a gap in existing measurement approaches.

Findings

Provides a structured approach for aligning software metrics with business strategies

Demonstrates the methodology through an illustrative example

Enhances decision-making by linking software metrics to organizational goals

Abstract

In software-intensive organizations, an organizational management system will not guarantee organizational success unless the business strategy can be translated into a set of operational software goals. The Goal Question Metric (GQM) approach has proven itself useful in a variety of industrial settings to support quantitative software project management. However, it does not address linking software measurement goals to higher-level goals of the organization in which the software is being developed. This linkage is important, as it helps to justify software measurement efforts and allows measurement data to contribute to higher-level decisions. In this paper, we propose a GQM+Strategies(R) measurement approach that builds on the GQM approach to plan and implement software measurement. GQM+Strategies(R) provides mechanisms for explicitly linking software measurement goals to higher-level goals for the software organization, and further to goals and strategies at the level of the entire business. The proposed method is illustrated in the context of an example application of the method.