Well, to answer your specific question, see the link in my reply to tptacek. But I want to clarify that I am not condemning them (and I wasn't trying to use th

Well, to answer your specific question, see the link in my reply to tptacek. But I want to clarify that I am not condemning them (and I wasn't trying to use the term "ruthless" in a pejorative sense, so it was probably a poor choice). I am simply pointing out that if you want to use the engineering method to effect change on a global scale - and I think that is absolutely the right approach - then you first need to make sure that it is good engineering. Gates, who by all accounts is an excellent engineer, is (if the quote is genuine) aware of the problems with software metrics. It is less clear whether he is carrying that scepticism over to the use of other metrics, and that is my concern.