There are many kinds of metrics to track. Some metrics are tracked by the Repository, others are tracked by other tools
or roles. These metrics can come from various sources, such as:
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Asset Consumers
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Asset Owners/Producers/Reviewers
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Repository
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Derived for Managers
Asset Consumer metrics generally include qualitative metrics, such as reusability ratings (4 out of 5 stars) or text
feedback in the form of comments and discussions. Typically these metrics are stored on the Repository.
Asset Owners/Producers/Reviewers tend to create asset-level metrics. These include metrics such as anticipated level of
effort for an Asset Consumer to use the asset, and the level of effort to create a given version of an asset. The
metrics also include size, such as number of bytes, lines of code, or number of components. Typically these metrics are
stored with the asset in the Repository.
Repository metrics are largely quantitative. These include metrics such as number of downloads for a given asset
version, number of searches and kinds of searches, number of browses from searches, as well as information on which
Asset Consumers conducted certain downloads. Some of the other metrics may be repository activity over a period of
time, such as, number of repository accesses, or asset submissions and so forth over a period of time. The Repository
can also track number of problems or defects associated with an asset.
In general, Repositories are not tracking the cost side of asset development. This is typically tracked in project
management and financial reporting tools. Bringing together the metrics from Asset Consumers, Asset
Owners/Producers/Reviewers and the Repository with costing metrics gives a foundation for derived metrics. Some of
these metrics include project reuse percentage, project productivity gains, and return on investment.
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