Metrics

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For other uses, see Metric.

Metrics are a system of parameters or ways of quantitative and periodic assessment of a process that is to be measured, along with the procedures to carry out such measurement and the procedures for the interpretation of the assessment in the light of previous or comparable assessments. Metrics are usually specialized by the subject area, in which case they are valid only within a certain domain and cannot be directly benchmarked or interpreted outside it.

The following ISM3 table suggests the elements that must be known for a metric to be fully defined. This table is critiziced some times as it omits controls against bias.

Element	Description
Metric	Name of the metric
Metric Description	Description of what is measured
Measurement Procedure	How is the metric measured
Measurement Frequency	How often is the measurement taken
Thresholds Estimation	How are the thresholds calculated
Current Thresholds	Current range of values considered normal for the metric
Target Value	Best possible value of the metric
Units	Units of measurement

(Source of this table: ISM3)

Metrics are used in business model, CMMI, ISM3 and knowledge management. These measurements or metrics can be used to track trends, productivity, resources and much more. Typically, the metrics tracked are key performance indicators.

Metrics are important in IT Service Management including ITIL; the intention is to measure the effectiveness of the various processes at delivering services to customers. Some suggest that data from different organisations can be gathered together, against an agreed set of metrics, to form a benchmark, which would allow organisations to evaluate their performance against industry sectors to establish, objectively, how well they are performing.

There is strong disagreement with these views from other quarters. No agreed standard set of best practice metrics exists; Kaner<ref>http://www.kaner.com/pdfs/metrics2004.pdf</ref> has raised serious objections about the purported validity of metrics used in software engineering.