Setting Up Benchmark Metrics

Before embarking on a Benchmarking activity we would recommend that you read Guidelines to Effective Benchmarking and Benchmarking Terms of Reference.

What is a Benchmark Period.

Record and report all your productivity and quality performance data in the SCOPE Benchmark Metrics module. You can do this directly by entering data into SCOPE or, by importing your metrics data from the SCOPE Excel Templates. See Importing Metrics Data from Excel Spreadsheets.

SCOPE designers worked with the ISBSG to ensure that the SCOPE data collection set is compliant with the standards set by the ISBSG Repository.

Different organisations have different ways of grouping the 'work' their project teams do to develop and enhance software. SCOPE accommodates most of these of groupings and allows you to record functional size and benchmark metrics against these various types of 'groups'. Before entering your size, effort, defect and cost data into SCOPE look at the level at which your project teams functionally size their software, record their time, allocate budget and assign defects. Then determine which is the most appropriate 'grouping' in SCOPE to record, compare and report your benchmark data.

ISBSG can accept data provided at any of the following groupings.

SCOPE 'groupings' of work:

A "Count Session" is what some organizations call a "Change Request" or "Work package". i.e. it is a defined set of changes to User Functionality for a single application. This discrete set of changes (new functions, changed functions and deleted functions) may be implemented by separate teams or sequentially by the same team. A series of Work packages implemented within a set period of time and put into production at the same time represent a "Release" of the Application. Each Work package, within a Release impacts the same Application but their requirements may be quite unrelated and be paid for by a different "Project " budget.
A "Release" is a collection of Count Sessions (Change Requests /Work packages) that were implemented for a single Application within a period of time, and released into production at the same time. e.g. Windows 7 is a 'release' of Windows, and SCOPE 4.0 is a Release of SCOPE that was made up of a series of Work packages that were implemented in a 12 month period.So a Release will only be associated with one application and therefore each Work package within that Release will usually have a similar technical environment.
A "Project" is similar to a Release except it is a collection of Change Requests /Count Sessions /Work packages, that were implemented for one or more Applications to satisfy a particular Business Requirement. e.g. 'Implement new Taxation Legislation'is a Project with its own budget which will have Change requests that impact one or more Applications.So a "Project" is often more difficult to benchmark since it may be associated with more than one application and may therefore be implemented with several different technologies, different teams, different languages, different locations.

A Count Session can belong to both a Project and a Release and within SCOPE can be recorded once but aggregated and reported for both groupings. The following SCOPE Architecture diagram illustrates how the relationships and data can be recorded within SCOPE. In order to record metrics data at Release Level or Count Session Level you first need to set up the Application that the Release belongs to, in the Applications List. Then set up the Release for the Application under the branch 'Work in Progress' Releases and if applicable set up its contributing Count Sessions under the Release. If your Count Sessions are also part of a Project. Then set up the Project in the Project List and Add the Count Session to the Project.

Any metrics data recorded in :

Count Session can be aggregated and reported at : Application Level, Release Level, Project Level
Release Level can be aggregated and reported at : Application Level, Release Level
Project Level can be aggregated and reported at : Project Level

So the more detail you record your metrics the more sophisticated the reporting.

Before you can record your metrics data in SCOPE you first need to set up the relevant Applications, Releases, Projects and Count Sessions in the Applications List and the Project List. see Setting Up Applications and Projects for Benchmarking.

Decide which grouping most closely aligns with how you collect your size, effort and defect data and enter your metrics data into that Grouping. To set up your Benchmark Period data see Recording Metrics Data.