Adminstratively withdrawn.This IEEE Standards product is part of the family on Software Engineering. A consistent way to measure the elements that go into computing software productivity is defined. Software productivity metrics terminology are given to ensure an understanding of measurement data for both source code and document production. Although this standard prescribes measurements to characterize the software process, it does not establish software productivity norms, nor does it recommend productivity measurements as a method to evaluate software projects or software developers. This standard does not measure the quality of software. This standard does not claim to improve productivity, only to measure it. The goal of this standard is for a better understanding of the software process, which may lend insight to improving it.

Measuring software productivity is similar to measuring other forms of productivity; that is, it is measured as the ratio of units of output divided by units of input. The inputs consist of the effort expended to produce a given output. For software, the tangible outputs are source code and documentation. Of course the product of software is a process, an algorithm that drives a computer to do work. Unfortunately, understanding of the functionality incorporated into a software product is still rudimentary. Only by understanding what can be measured will it be possible to understand the essence of the software process. Toward this end, this document standardizes software productivity metrics terminology to ensure an understanding of measurement data for both code and documentation production. It defines a set of units to measure the output products and input effort. The lowest level of measurement defined in this standard is called a primitive . The output primitives measured are softwa...