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 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 :

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.

See also SCOPE Relationships - Applications Releases Projects Counts.

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.