Measurement has a great importance in our daily life.

To measure
anything we used to define some rules or instructions. These rules help us in
solving our problems in a better way. The rules defining the measurements are
more precisely known as metrics. To measure any attribute of any system we
follow some specific criteria. In our daily routine we measure each and every
thing in some manner but we do not even consider it. With the passage of time
measurements are getting more important. To measure different attributes of
different systems we use metrics like distance for traveling [1].
In the same way attributes of the software are also measured so that
they meet the customer requirements. Different researchers in the past have
proposed many metrics In the field of software engineering these metrics are
called software metrics. Some software metrics, which were designed by
keeping in mind the software development, include performance, reliability,
reusability, time, security metrics and so many other metrics, which have been
proposed and validated by different researchers [3].

An ISO standard 12207 is specifically designed for software

development life cycle processes. All the functionalities of a software
application are fully described under this standard [5].
 Soft Issues
1. Communication Issues

2. Organizational Issues

3. Individual Issues

4. Knowledge Management Issues

5. UI related Designer Issues

6. Cultural Issues

7. Graphical Issues

8. Strategic Issues

9. Coordination Complexity

10. Stress Management Issues

11. Support Staff Management Issues

Table 1: Some Soft Issues

 4. Problem Statement

Main purpose of the proposed methodology is to clearly resolve the soft

issues through software metrics. These issues can be related to the communication
between the client and the analyst or they can be about the environment in which
they are working or about their sitting plans. Some ethical, geographical,
cultural and technical issues are there which can cause problems at the end. As
well as interaction is concerned; it can be possible with anyone who is involved in
the project in some manner. Inappropriate graphical user interface can create a big
issue at user end, there can be an improper placement of objects that makes bad
look and feel and it becomes difficult for user to understand.

Metrics will be developed with the help of different standard thresholds

and then will be assessed and validated with proofs.
 5. Proposed Metrics for Handling Soft Issues in Software
Development Life Cycle

The soft issues related to each phase of the SDLC is given in the fig.2

Requirements Gathering Phase

Communication Issues Organizational Issues Individual Issues

Analysis Phase
Knowledge Management Issues

Design Phase
UI related Designer Issues

Development Phase
Stress Management Issues

Maintenance Phase

Support Staff Issues

Fig. 2: Soft issues in each phase of SDLC

The importance of each phase can be measured by comparing the cost of effort
and time spent during each phase. During software development software
principles should be followed and mainly the emphasis should be given on

requirements gathering and analysis. The phase-distribution estimating an

effort distribution ratio is expressed as a percent of total effort [21].

 Customer requirements 15%

  Architectural/external analysis & design 25%
 Internal Design 20%
 Code/Debug 10%
 Unit Test 5%
 Integration Test 15%
 System/Acceptance Test 10%

a. SDLC Soft Issue Metric:

To handle the soft issues in overall SDLC, they should be handled first in
each phase. Then their result will be put in the following metric to get the
overall result.

Where:

SI (SDLC) = Soft Issues handled in SDLC

m= No. of SDLC Phases i.e. 5

Where,
SI (Req.) = Soft Issues handled in Requirement Phase

A= Total No. of soft issues considered in Requirements phase

SI (An.) = Soft Issues handled in Analysis Phase

B= Total No. of soft issues considered in Analysis phase

SI (Des.) = Soft Issues handled in Design Phase

C= Total No. of soft issues considered in Design phase

SI (Dev.) = Soft Issues handled in Development Phase

D= Total No. of soft issues considered in Development phase

SI (Mt.) = Soft Issues handled in Maintenance Phase

E= Total No. of soft issues considered in Maintenance phase

On the whole for all the phases of SDLC, there are different soft issues that are indicated in

literature survey. If all those considered issues are fulfilled completely then the maximum
value of result is obtained i.e. 1. And if no issue has been handled the minimum value is

obtained i.e. 0.

issues are handled

All

No issue is handled

Out of all considered soft issues there are almost half such issues that are basically

required to be resolved for the acceptance of a system. These issues are

indicated by many researchers mentioned in the literature survey .

(Threshold ) That means if half of those issues are resolved successfully, the

acceptable value can be obtained from here, i.e. ~ 0.5. So the acceptable range of the overall

SDLC of a system is defined below:

(Threshold )

In above mentioned equation SI (Req.), SI (An.), SI (Des.), SI (Dev.) and SI (Mt.) are defined

as follows:
The first equation can be rewritten in the following form:

Now the soft issues in each phase are resolved by evaluating all the considered sub issues.

i. Metrics for Requirements Gathering Phase

 Knowledge

Experience

Communication
Communication
Skills
Issues
Communication

Channels

Resources

Availability

Nature of

Organization
Requirements Organizational Issues
Gathering Phase
Exposure towards

new Technology

Ethics

Commitments

Individual Motivation

Issues

Interaction

Job Security

Clarity

Fig.3: Flow of the Soft Issues in Requirements Gathering Phase

Proposed Metric Solution for Requirements Gathering Phase:

Where z = Total no. of soft issues considered in Requirements Phase

RC = Communication Issues

RO = Organizational Issues

I = Individual Issues

Where RC, RO and RI itself are defined as:

 Where n1 = Total no. of soft issues considered in Communication issues

n2 = Total no. of soft issues considered in Organizational issues

n3 = Total no. of soft issues considered in Individual issues

1. Requirements Based on Communication:

Communication issues are there in almost every phase of SDLC. These issues are related to the
communication between the client and the analyst. As well as interaction is concerned; it can be
possible with anyone who is involved in the project in some manner. Some main confronts are
about the lack of informal communication. Main problems that can be considered in this manner
are as follows:

At client’s end:

 Client is unable to deliver his basic requirements

 Not properly educated
 Variation in requirements
 Not has enough experience of his work
 Nor has any know how about the latest tools and techniques
 Weak communication skills

At employee’s end:

 Business analyst handles the requirements gathering

 Not has enough experience of his work
 Nor has any know how about the latest tools and techniques
 Weak communication skills
  Not properly educated
 No ability to query the client properly

These are some of the main soft issues that arise in requirement gathering phase while interacting
with the client. At client and analyst side main issues are same.

Proposed Solution:
For its solution following are the sub issues that should be handled:

 Knowledge Experience (education, experience, advanced knowledge of latest

tools and techniques)

 Communication channel (face-2-face, video conferencing, telephonic, emails)

 Communication (interaction between the client and the analyst)

Where n1= Total no. of soft issues considered in Communication issues

C1 = Communication

C2 = Communication Channel

C3 = Knowledge Experience

As it is a 2-way process between client and the employee, so the overall mean value of the
communication factors is calculated through the following metric:
Where OMV = Overall mean value of the Factors involved

F= Factor/entity involved (in this case client and employee)

n = Total number of factors/entities (in this case 2)

4.1.1.2. Requirements Based on Organization:

These issues can be about the environment in which the employees are working or
interacting with the clients. Organization is the place in which the employees are
employed for working. And within the organization there are individual issues that count
a lot. Organizational Issues are about the features and culture of the organization.
Following factors are considered in regarding organization’s environment:

 Nature of the organization

 Its goals
 Geographical issues
 Resources availability
 Comparison with natural culture
 Communication channels
 Exposure towards new technology
 Rate of staff turnover
 These are the factors which client should consider before initiating the project with
any organization. Because these minor soft issues create major issues at the end or during the
software development.

Proposed Solution:
Following are the sub issues that are considered in resolving this issue:

 Good communication skills (so that employee has good interaction with the
client)
 Resources are available (employees feasibility)
 Exposure towards new technology
 Nature of organization (project domains on which it works)
 Good repute (cultural comparison among different organizations)

Where n2 = Total no. of soft issues considered in Organizational issues

O1 = Nature of Organization

O2 = Resources Availability

O3 = Exposure towards new Technology

4.1.1.3. Requirements Based on Individual:

 Individual issues include the person-to-person interaction and its impact on the
environment. Following can be the points that come under this issue:
 Meeting usefulness between client and organization
 Customer contentment (employee and customer surveys to understand a
valuable basic customer contentment)
 Person-to-person interaction and its impact on environment
 Ethical issues (perceived behavioral control)
 Communication skills
 Fear of adverse consequences
 Self respect and dignity

Proposed Solution:
Following are the sub issues that are considered in resolving this issue:

 Ethics (good behavior)

 Communication skills
 Motivation
 Commitments to work
 Probability of Job security (if given then performance improves)
 Clarity towards requirements

Where n3 = Total no. of soft issues considered in Individual issues

∴
I1 = Ethics

I2 = Commitments

I3 = Motivation

I4 = Communication Skills

I5 = Job Security

I6 = Clarity (about requirements)

4.1.2. Metrics for Analysis Phase:

Soft issues involved in Analysis phase are coordination complexity, knowledge

management, cultural coordination and requirement specification. All the soft issues regarding
analysis phase are defined under knowledge management issues.

The flow of the processes involved in handling soft issues for the Analysis phase, is described in
the figure below:
 Analyst's Co-ordination

Completely Specified

Requirements

Analysis Phase Knowledge Management Issues

Considered Cultural Co-

ordination

Organized Documentation

Fig. 4: Flow of handling soft issues in Analysis Phase

Main factors that cause the soft issues in analysis phase are enlisted below:

 Coordination complexity
 Knowledge management
 Team building and analysis of data
 Cultural co-ordination
 Incomplete requirement specification
 Different outputs from group of analysts
 Perceptions
 Weak interaction between analysts
 Improper documentation

Proposed Solution:
 Following are the factors that are considered in resolving this issue:

 Co-ordination between the analysts

 Client’s requirements should be completely specified (requirement
specification document)
 Should also consider the cultural co-ordination
 Documentation should be properly organized

Proposed Metric Solution for Analysis Phase:

Where z = Total no. of soft issues considered in Analysis Phase

Where An1 = Analyst’s Co-ordination

An2 = Completely Specified Requirements
An3 = Considered Cultural Co-ordination
An4 = Organized Documentation

4.1.3. Metrics for Design Phase:

Soft issues involved in Design phase are UI related graphical issues including placement of
objects and some sort of designer issues. Some soft issues regarding design phase are defined
under UI related designer issues. The flow of the processes involved in handling soft issues for
the Design phase, is described in the figure below:
 Designert's Understanding

Design Phase UI related Designer Issues

Good Look & Feel

Friendly & Appropriate UI

Fig. 5: Flow of handling soft Issues in Design Phase

These issues arise in detailed design of the design concept after the preliminary
design. While developing any website, inappropriate graphical user interface can create a big
issue at user end, there can be an improper placement of objects that makes bad look and feel
and it becomes difficult for user to understand. Main factors that cause the soft issues in
Design phase are enlisted below:
 Designer’s understanding towards design
 Plan Elaborated flowchart, database interfaces, input output forms
 Plan data communication interfaces
 Improper placement of objects (Bad look and feel)
 Not user-friendly interface (cultural, religious issues etc.) User’s
understanding towards design
 Provided knowledge is not relevant, Interface does not match with the
actual purpose of the software (Inappropriate UI)
 Proposed Solution:

Following are the factors that are considered in resolving this issue:

 Designer’s understanding towards design (audience’s cultural or religious

background)
 Good look and feel (audience’s intellectual level)
 User friendly interface, user should easily understand the basic purpose
 Appropriate UI

Proposed Metric Solution for Design Phase:

Where z = Total no. of soft issues considered in Design Phase

Where Des1 = Designer’s Understanding

Des2 = Good Look & Feel

Des3 = Friendly & Appropriate UI

4.1.4. Metrics for Development Phase:

Soft issues involved in Development phase are Programmer’s understanding &

knowledge, Stress (Implementation is feasible in the environment), Team issues and Client’s
feedback/input is taken side by side to improve the performance of the project. All the soft issues
regarding this phase are defined under development phase issues. The flow of the processes
involved in handling soft issues for the Development phase, is described in the figure below:

Stress Factor

Deveelopment Phase Development Phase Issues

Team Management

Programmer's

Understanding

Fig. 6: Flow of handling Soft Issues in Development Phase

Main factors that cause the soft issues in Development phase are enlisted below:

 Programmer’s understanding & knowledge

 Stress (Implementation is feasible in the environment)
 Team issues
 Client’s feedback/input is taken side by side to improve the performance of
the project.

Proposed Solution:
 Following are the factors that are considered in resolving this issue:

 Programmer must have good knowledge and understanding.

 Stress free environment
 Not too stringent time-line based on work complexity
 Work-life-balance
 Programmer’s appreciation can lessen the stress.
 Team management
 Client’s feedback/input is taken side by side to improve the performance of the
project.

Proposed Metric Solution for Development Phase:

Where z = Total no. of soft issues considered in Analysis Phase

Where

Dev1 = Stress Factor (Good work environment, Appropriate time, Less work
complexity, Work-life- balance, Level of appreciation from client &
management)

Dev2 = Team Management

Dev3 = Programmer’s Understanding

4.1.5. Metrics for Maintenance Phase:

Soft issues involved in Maintenance phase are Periodic feedback from client/user in
case of any change, Support staff schedules and Support staff Knowledge & understanding. All
the soft issues regarding Maintenance phase are defined under Support Staff Management issues.
The flow of the processes involved in handling soft issues for the Maintenance phase, is
described in the figure below:

Periodic Feedback

Maintenance Phase Support Staff Management Issues

Support Staff Schedules

Support Staff Knowledge &

Understanding

Fig. 7: Flow of handling Soft Issues in Maintenance Phase

Main factors that cause the soft issues in Maintenance phase and considered in resolving this
issue are enlisted below:
  Periodic feedback from client/user in case of any change
 Support staff schedules
 Support staff Knowledge & understanding

Proposed Metric Solution for Maintenance Phase:

Where z = Total no. of soft issues considered in Maintenance Phase

Mt1 = Periodic Feedback

Mt2 = Support Staff Schedules

Mt3 = Support Staff Knowledge

 5. Results and Discussion

5.1. Case Study Introduction:

The case study that is taken here for the validation of our proposed work is “Automated
e-mailed Invoice by Customer”, which is a real time implemented project’s module. The client of
this project is ‘ABC’ (the name of the company is not mentioned for the security purpose), who
is working with the Systems Limited, Lahore, Pakistan [22]. Auto Email Invoicing Process,
provides an overview of the automated emailing process of customer invoices in PDF format to
Non-EDI customers. It provides a way to modify the invoice process to automate e-mailing a
copy of the invoice, instead of mailing a hard copy. As initially, the Invoices for a number of
customers were printed manually, then collated & mailed to the individual customers. Systems
proposed and implemented Auto Email Invoicing interface to send the invoices in PDF format as
email attachment. A robust process which works twice a day and generate PDF report from
existing SSRS reporting services and send an email to customer very quickly. So by replacing a
paper-based invoicing process with electronic methods, businesses can operate more effectively
and improve the profit margins, as well as benefit from better communication with the
customers, better information about the cash flow etc.

Systems Limited is the organization whose vision is to be recognized by the customers,

employees, vendors, partners, competitors and all stakeholders as the number one Software
house of Pakistan; to be rated among the best software solutions and IT services company within
the Finance & Apparel market segments in the USA; and to have a strong presence in the South
East Asia, Middle East and European Markets. Its mission is to be the trusted partner of clients,
helping them to enhance their business performance by providing them with innovative, state-of-
the-art software solutions, automated and integrated workflows and business processes and the
highest quality of, and quickest turnaround times for IT and IT enabled services. They believe
that they exist to serve their customers with mutual respect and care, to take pride in their work,
and to act with integrity in all that they do, while striving for financial gains for their
stakeholders, customers and employees.

5.1.1. Deployment Architecture of the “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”:

Fig. 8: Deployment Architecture

This deployment architecture of the automated e-mailed Invoice describes the whole processing
step by step that how it goes. At the back end of the implementation of this automated e-mailed
Invoice process, it goes through all the phases of SDLC. The proposed metrics are applied on all
the phases of SDLC through which this automated e-mailed Invoice goes for its implementation.
5.2. Handling Soft Issues in overall SDLC of “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”

through the proposed metrics

This section presents the validation of metrics proposed for handling soft issues in
software development life cycle. Proposed metrics are applied on a real time implemented
project’s module i.e. “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”, which has gone through all the
phases of SDLC by considering different soft issues. Now following is the implementation of
proposed metrics on this case study.

5.2.1. Validation of Metrics in Requirements Gathering Phase:

5.2.1.1. Validating Communication Metric:

In the project “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”, different employees on client

side are dealing with the analysts. Communication, communication channels and knowledge
experience are the factors that are involved in communication issues. The best combination of
the client and the analyst who are handling these factors would be preferred for the successful
completion of the project. Following are the values of these issues that are handled through a
better interaction between the client and the analyst.

Table 2: Showing values for communication issues

Client Name Knowledge Communication Communication

Company Experience Channel

KWD walley 0.4 0.6 0.6

KWD Anderson 0.2 0.4 0.6

KWD sani 0.4 0.6 0.6

KWD Vinny 0.5 0.5 0.4

 KWD John 1 0.8 0.5………1

KWD Jim 0.8 0.4 0.5

Employee Analyst’s
Company Name

Systems Bob 1 0.8 0.5……….1

Systems George 0.8 0.4 0.5

Systems Alice 0.4 0.6 0.6

Systems Sam 0.2 0.4 0.6

Systems Stefen 0.4 0.6 0.6

The best combination for the knowledge experience, a communication channel and
communication is with John and Bob. Now by putting these values in the following table:

Table 3:

Soft Issues Involved in Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Communication
SI(RC)
For Client For Analyst
(f1) (f2)
Knowledge Experience 1 1 1
Communication 1 0.8 0.8
Channel
Communication 1 0.5 0.5
3 2.3 2.3

Now here two entities/factors are involved i.e. client and the analyst, so the overall value for
these factors will be calculated.

OFV = (2.3+2.3)/2 = 4.6/2 = 2.3

After Handling Issue:

After complete implementation of this case study, an issue occurred. The issue was that if
customers are more than 20 then there was a problem of sending email invoices to them. So if
this issue was discussed at the beginning of the project that what should be the maximum limit
for the no. of customers, then it could be resolved earlier. Now to resolve this issue we have to
go to the requirements gathering phase, where it should be handled through metric.
By handling this issue we get the following results:
Table 4:

Soft Issues Involved in Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Communication SI(RC)
For Client For Analyst
(f1) (f2)
Knowledge Experience 1 1 1
Communication Channel 1 0.8 0.8
Communication 1 1 1
3 2.8 2.8

OFV = (2 . 8+2 .8)/2 = 5.6/2 = 2.8

5.2.1.2. Validating Organizational Metric:

Following are the values of Organizational issues that are gathered from the organization
Systems Limited.

Soft Issues Involved in Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Organizational Issues SI(RO)
Nature of Organization 1 0.8
Resources Availability 1 0.6
Exposure towards new Technology 1 0.8
3 2.2
5.2.1.3. Validating Individual Metric:

Following are the values of Individual issues that are gathered by evaluating the behaviors of the
employees of the company.

Table 5:

Soft Issues Involved in Individual Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Issues SI(RI)
Ethics 1 1
Commitments 1 0.8
Motivation 1 0.6
Interaction 1 0.7
Job Security 1 0.9
Clarity 1 0.2
6 4.2

Table 6:

Soft Issues for Overall Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Requirement Phase
SI(RC) 3 2.3
SI(RO) 3 2.2
SI(RI) 6 4.2
12 8.7
After Handling Issue:

Table 7:

Soft Issues for Overall Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Requirement Phase
SI(RC) 3 2.8
SI(RO) 3 2.2
SI(RI) 6 4.2
12 9.2

5.2.2. Validation of Metrics in Analysis Phase:

In the analysis phase of the project “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”,

different soft issues related to the knowledge management are handled through proposed metric
for this phase. Following is the detailed description of these issues in tabular form:

Table 8:

Soft Issues Involved for Analysis Total Issues Considered Handled Issues
Phase
Analyst’s Co-ordination 1 0.8
Requirements Specification 1 0.4
Considered Cultural Co-ordination 1 0.6
Document Organization 1 0.7
4 2.5
 In the design phase of the project “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”, different
soft issues related to the User interface or designer’ are handled through proposed metric for this
phase. Following is the detailed description of these issues in tabular form:

Table 9:

Soft Issues Involved for Design Total Issues Considered Handled Issues
Phase
Designer’s Understanding 1 0.9
Look & Feel Issues 1 0.8
Appropriate UI 1 0.8
3 2.5

5.2.4. Validation of Metrics in Development Phase:

In the development phase of the project “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”,

different soft issues related to the stress, team management and programmer’s understanding are
handled through proposed metric for this phase. Following is the detailed description of these
issues in tabular form:

Table 10:

Soft Issues Involved for Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Development Phase
 Stress Issues 1 0.8
Team Management Issues 1 0.9
Programmer’s Understanding 1 0.8
3 2.5

5.2.5. Validation of Metrics in Maintenance Phase:

In the maintenance phase of the project “Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer”,

different soft issues like periodic feedback from customers, support staff schedules and support
staff knowledge & management are handled through proposed metric for this phase. Following is
the detailed description of these issues in tabular form:

Table 11:

Soft Issues Involved for Total Issues Considered Handled Issues

Maintenance Phase
Periodic Feedback 1 0.9
Support Staff Schedules 1 0.8
Support Staff Knowledge & 1 1
Understanding
3 2.7
 5.3. Validation of Soft Issues Metric for Overall SDLC (SI (SDLC)):

Before Handling Issue: After Handling Issue:

Soft Issues Total Issues Handled Soft Issues Total Issues Handled
Involved in Considered Issues Involved in Considered Issues
Overall SDLC Overall SDLC
SI (Req.) 12 8.7 SI (Req.) 12 9.2
SI (An.) 4 2.5 SI (An.) 4 2.5
SI (Des.) 3 2.5 SI (Des.) 3 2.5
SI (Dev.) 3 2.5 SI (Dev.) 3 2.5
SI (Mt.) 3 2.7 SI (Mt.) 3 2.7
25 18.9 25 19.4

Results before handling communication Issue Results after handling communication Issue

The proposed metrics was applied to an Invoice enhancement project

“Automated e-mailed Invoice by Customer” under an ERP (enterprise resource plan) system.
And when proposed metrics are applied to this project, it goes towards the ideal result i.e. ‘1’.
Due to the proposed solution some improvements occurred in the requirements phase of the
above mentioned project and it gets more tendencies towards the desired result. So it provides
the better way to measure the soft issues that occur in all the phases of SDLC.
 6. Conclusion & Future Work
By summing up all the discussion that come across providing the proposed solution, it is
concluded that newly introduced metrics provide the quantitative facts about the
projects/systems, which are being run by different organizations. Projects undergo different
phases of SDLC and each phase has its impact on that project/ system. These phases have
different soft issues and some associated factors, which are resolved through metrics.

In spite of the major issues that occur in SDLC, there are some other issues, which are
apparently not obvious or appear to be indeterminate. We call such issues as soft issues. Many
researchers have defined such soft issues according to different perspectives in different fields.
There are some soft issues that are related to the software engineering but are not handled
explicitly for SDLC phases. Through literature survey, it has come across that many soft issues,
which are apparently indeterminate like communication issues between the client and the analyst
or the environmental issues etc, are not handled yet logically. So the proposed solution emphasis
is on handling those soft issues by defining some metrics for them.

The proposed metrics are applied on the soft issues of a real time case study and then
validated with logics and proofs. It prevents the software from the issues that are to be faced at
the end of the software development. These soft issues are tackled at each phase of SDLC for
better output. The proposed solution helps in identifying the quality of the project by comparing
the results that comes at the end of completion of that project with or without applying metrics
on that. After validation it is concluded that if issues are handled initially at the early phases of
SDLC then problems can be resolved. And at the end of implementation of the project the result
is free of issues.

Future Work:
 In SDLC different phases have their own importance and are given percentages on the
basis of effort or work done in each phase, by different researchers in the past. But as there is no
percentage wise division on the basis of importance of the phases, it was quite a difficult task for
me to find the solution. So it is required to work on finding the percentage wise division of
SDLC phases. The very first phase of SDLC i.e. Requirements gathering phase is of supreme
importance and need so much consideration before going towards the real implementation. In
that recommended division, requirements gathering phase should be given the utmost
importance. In all the phases of SDLC, different issues are resolved through metrics. But if there
will be an automatic software implementation for all the phases then that will be more helpful in
dealing with the problems that occur during software projects development.