Comment The appropriate use of metrics (Score 1) 203
Metrics should only be used to make projections about reimplementation of a project, i.e. highest level if estimation, but having said that, if the person responsible for that estimation, cannot make it off the top of their heads(relies on metrics alone), then the company has bigger problems...
Where a metric makes developers competitive, to the point where they are working against each other, rather than together, the metric is actually damaging the project; how many of us have worked on a project like that?
Any good metric requires each objective to be weighted based on size and difficulty, factored by the experience of the resource with the domain and code-base, a lot of hard work, but if the initial estimations are inaccurate or deliberately favour certain resources, it collapse like the house of cards that it is...
My advice take metrics with a grain of salt, especially on the macro level; its rare for the keystone developer to be the best performing in the eyes of the metric...