Measurement, Metrics, Indicators

Here is an interesting article on the difference between Measurement, Metrics and Indicators: http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1995/03/Measure.asp

This article can be compared to the importance of Standards, Frameworks and Models.

1. Measurement is like a standard – which has been established globally (like the value of a $, or lines of code or function points or time etc) or locally within an organization (like man months etc)
2. Metrics is like a framework – which uses a combination of measures to arrive at a meaningful outcome (like cost variance, size variance, productivity, etc)
3. Indicators is like a model – which is to be established and interpreted based on the need of the business (like cost variance should be below 5%, size variance should be less than 2%, productivity should be greater than 8 FP per work day etc).

It is very important that we use the right combination of all the three to ensure that the business/organization benefits from these in line with their business objectives.