International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications Vol.7, No.5 (2013), pp.197-208 http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijseia.2013.7.5.18 ISSN: 1738-9984 IJSEIA Copyright ⓒ 2013 SERSC A Distinctive Suite of Performance Metrics for Software Design Shahid Iqbal, Muhammad Khalid and M.N.A. Khan Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST), Islamabad, Pakistan shahid.iqbal.skt@gmail.com, k_est@hotmail.com, mnak2010@gmail.com Abstract Software metrics proposed in various theories and literature have considerable variation among them. The sole purpose of all these theories is to improve the quality of software projects by producing and using quantitative measures. All these theories improve the quality of a software project and mend all the issues relating to software refactoring. As the software industry moves to a more mature state, the need for employing more effective tools, techniques and benchmarks for managing software projects has become significantly critical to minimize the negative risk factors as well as ensuring augmented adherence to quality assurance. In this study, we intend to explore how distinctive metrics with respect to different knowledge areas, especially in design engineering, could be useful to manage knowledgeably the software projects. The focus of this research study is to evaluate and highlight the importance of various performance metrics and measures to track the software project performance followed by some already proposed metrics for software design, development and management. Keywords: Software Project Management, Project Performance Metrics, Design Management, Metrics for Quality Management, Software Engineering 1. Introduction Peter Drucker, a famous management consultant, states: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. It may not be possible for a project team to successfully manage a project if they are not able to accurately measure all the aspects of that project. Although software metrics proposed in various theories and literature shows a variance among them, but goals of all these metrics are to improve the quality and performance of a project, and mend all the issues relating to software refactoring [1]. Software Engineer should focus on quantitative results to improve the quality of software design both at the architectural and component level [11]. Quality of software is gauged by checking the and level of the bug-free environment and the availability of easy to handle modules. Our goal is to improve the experience of change being refactored through a continuous and repeating refactoring experiment. As software industry is heading towards a maturity stage; therefore, the need for applying more effective tools and techniques for benchmarking is essentially required. Such an approach would help ensure minimizing the negative risk factors and adherence of quality assurance. Specific metrics should be used to validate the actual requirement versus documented requirements completely. However, multiple metrics are used to document the traces of differences between the demand for change and requirements of quality specifications. Hence, a single metric cannot ensure the overall quality of software.