An approach to software baseline generation

A current Data & Analysis Center for Software (DACS) effort to develop software baselines is summarized. This baseline effort is an on-going activity; that is, the baselines are meant to be updated as new software data becomes available. The information presented and processed was organized to make periodic updating a much simpler task. A baseline, for this effort, consists of an estimation of any characteristic of a software project that is helpful to a developer, manager, or monitor to manage, control, or influence a software product. The objective of these baselines is to provide a tool for aiding software developers in their daily work. Baselines were synthesized from an empirical dataset provided by the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/SEL). These data were selected because the data collection effort developed at the NASA/SEL is the most thorough and complete available.