I just finished my PhD in the Computational Science and Statistics program at South Dakota State University. My dissertation focused on the area of software analytics, sometimes called Data-Driven Software Engineering. Specifically, how does a Software Development Organization evaluate itself? Students have a G.P.A. (Grade Point Average), but organizations do not have a similar evaluation method.

The dissertation introduces the C.R.I. (Cumulative Result Indicator) to provide a single number to evaluate the performance of a software development organization. The C.R.I. focuses on 5 primary elements of a Software Development Organization.

1. Quality
2. Availability
3. Satisfaction
4. Schedule
5. Requirements

C.R.I. demonstrates what data needs to be calculated, and how that data can be used to create a score. Naturally, this solution will not work in every situation, but it does provide a consistent method for evaluation, and it is flexible to allow only some of the elements or even additional elements.

There is the brief 1-minute overview of the dissertation. Feel free to read more of the details in the document below.

The source and data files are available on Github, Dissertation Scoring SDO.

You can also see results of the analysis on Sense, Scoring an SDO.

This is the first in a series of posts on Data-Driven Software Engineering. In the next few weeks, I will be posting more about the topic. Some posts will be excerpts from the dissertation, and others will be new thoughts on the topic. Stay Tuned!