ABSTRACT
The software industry is unique in having more metric variants than any other engineering discipline in history, combined with an almost total lack of conversion rules from one metric to another. Developers of new versions of function point metrics almost always fail to provide conversion rules between their new version and older standard metrics such as International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) function points. The existence of five separate methods for counting source code and at least 20 variations in counting function points with almost no conversion rules from one metric to another is a professional embarrassment to the software industry. As of 2016, the plethora of ambiguous metrics is slowing progress toward a true economic understanding of the software industry. Measuring defect potentials and defect removal efficiency (DRE) levels have been noted to make very beneficial improvements in software development practices.
