The title of this book accurately describes its content; however, the book covers more than just software measurement. Although not formally divided, the book has three sections. The first section, chapters 2 through 6, is a how-to section on doing measurement in general, including chapters on the business perspective, planning, performing measurement, introducing a measurement program into a company, and the infrastructure necessary for measurement. The second section, chapters 7 through 12, applies measurement to various areas of software development. These areas include cost and size estimation, project management, defects, process improvement, performance, and service level management. The third section, chapters 13 through 15, contains case studies. The final chapter, 16, contains information about the resources and groups involved in software measurement.

Each chapter includes a “Hints for the Practitioner” section. These sections give very specific and practical advice related to the topic of the chapter. This advice is based on the very important experience of the authors, and is an important contribution to the book. The pointers to resources mentioned in the book are excellent, as are the extensive glossary and list of references.