Prediction, on the other hand, is based on an examination of process artifacts and trends. Moreover, guided by the proper framework, a measurement program can be tailored to provide insights into the development process that reveal why specific problems have occurred and which suggest corrective actions. To establish an effective software quality measurement program one must recognize those objectives underlying software measurement and implement a measurement process that stresses their achievement. To help focus in on those objectives four crucial questions must be addressed. The ones touted most often are those of increased productivity, enhanced product quality and an improved development process.
Increased productivity is measured on both the individual and group levels.
It is often related to short term goals focusing on the speedy development of individual software units. An improved process more directly reflects an organizational view and is almost always tied to the longer-term goals. For the software engineer, quality characteristics are often stated in terms of attributes associated with individual software components, e.g., high code cohesion and low coupling among modules. A project manager's view of product quality, however, is often focused on the achievement of project level objectives, e.g., maintainability and reliability. Because software quality must reflect characteristics of the product as a whole , and not just components thereof, we maintain that the proper framework for expressing product quality must ultimately accommodate the project manager's perspective, i.e., that associated with project level goals and objectives.