TY - JOUR T1 - An operational process for goal-driven definition of measures JF - Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Y1 - 2002 A1 - Briand,L.C. A1 - Morasca,S. A1 - Basili, Victor R. KW - attributes; KW - definition; KW - development KW - empirical KW - engineering; KW - expected KW - experimental KW - goal-driven KW - GQM KW - GQM/MEDEA; KW - hypotheses; KW - management; KW - mathematical KW - measure KW - measurement; KW - metrics; KW - operational KW - paradigm; KW - process; KW - Product KW - properties; KW - quality; KW - software KW - verification; AB - We propose an approach (GOM/MEDEA) for defining measures of product attributes in software engineering. The approach is driven by the experimental goals of measurement, expressed via the GQM paradigm, and a set of empirical hypotheses. To make the empirical hypotheses quantitatively verifiable, GQM/MEDEA supports the definition of theoretically valid measures for the attributes of interest based on their expected mathematical properties. The empirical hypotheses are subject to experimental verification. This approach integrates several research contributions from the literature into a consistent, practical, and rigorous approach. VL - 28 SN - 0098-5589 CP - 12 M3 - 10.1109/TSE.2002.1158285 ER -