History and Lessons Learnt from a Metrics Program at a CMMI Level 3 Company

Metrics and especially metric-based monitoring dashboards provide valuable information and insights for managers in software development organizations. However, implementing and launching a company wide metrics program is very hard and time consuming. This paper describes the history and our experience with the development of a metrics program at Generali Deutschland Informatik Services, a CMMI level 3 certified company. We also provide important lessons learned alongside a list of consolidated best practices for the implementation and maintenance of a large metrics and dashboard program. We believe that both are useful for every practitioner and researcher in this field and help to build better and more sustainable metrics and dashboard development processes and infrastructures.