It's like trying to apply metrics to writing a novel. Oh, that's not hard to do. The only one that matters in the marketplace for software is the same one tha

It's like trying to apply metrics to writing a novel. Oh, that's not hard to do. The only one that matters in the marketplace for software is the same one that matters to most novel publishers - does it make money. That's a simple metric to measure and it's one that corporations instinctively understand, both in software and in novel publishing. Monetarily successful software publishers, just like novel publishers, know very well what the quality sensitivity of their customer is, and produce accordingly. The metric (and the audience quality sensitivity) is obviously quite different when you are talking about niche product, be it aircraft control software or a mathematics textbook.