My entry on 25 April wrapped up thoughts and associated documents on project management. This entry's theme is metrics. There is a direct relationship between software project management and metrics, as well as between service delivery and metrics. A good place to start is Practical Approach to Software Metrics, which is a primer. Also see previous metrics entries because this is a recurring topic.

Metrics need to be placed within a context of the development life cycle. An interesting approach to life cycles is the hybrid process model that combines the spiral and waterfall life cycles. This is but one example and certainly not the only viable model. However, you have to credit the authors for creativity and some excellent ideas. Armed with a primer and one model that incorporates two common life cycles into a hybrid, the next step is to survey metrics practices. This document presents best practices that you can learn from to develop (or improve) your metrics program. If you want to assess your metrics posture the Excel metrics self-evaluation tool will give you a baseline and the basis for launching a process improvement initiative.