Maximising the Value of the Business by Understanding Software Metrics in Saudi Enterprises: A Case Study

Wael Alrabie and Musleh Alsulami

Abstract:

Companies compete between each other to achieve competitive advantage. The level of competition increases in free open market such as Saudi Arabian context (Zain et al., 2017). The majority of the business operations rely on the software, firms tend to adopt various software methods to fulfil an optimum level of functionality and efficiency (Demyanova et al., 2017). Software metric is a measure for the characteristics of software that are countable or measurable (Aversano et al., 2017). The software metrics would help the organization or private entity to analyze the quality of the software (Al-Saleem and Ullah, 2015). Also, it would assist the software development process and assess the functionality of the software in a systematic approach (Fenton and Bieman, 2014). Establishing a software methodology is not a small endeavour rather the complexity raises with the procedure (Kaur and Kaur, 2015). However, this study will consider three types of software metrics that increase the value of business in enterprises (i.e. ISO 9001, CMMI, and Agile methods) (Basili et al., 2010).This would lead to challenge in comparing software through doing lines of code without a standard definition. For this reason, it is necessary to create a method of measurement as well as consistent units of measurements to be implemented during the life of the project (Kitchenham, B., 2010).That is why more flexible and result oriented software needs to be developed in order to fulfil the needs of the organisations. Result oriented software concentrates on software’s size and normally manifested as Kilo Lines of Code (KLOC) (Bessey et al., 2010). It is relatively easy to handle software metric to gather once decisions that are made in regard to what makes a line of code. This study considers ISO 9001, CMMI, and Agile methods as a road map to measure and study software processes in companies.  In details, the science of measurement is a process of conducting scrutiny and developing a deep understanding of the well-established philosophies (Navarro et al., 2016).