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Comment by bigtex88 | Hacker News Reader

Ok, but then what game is being played according to these metrics? There is no game of "code" like there is a game of "football" or "golf".

Perhaps these metrics matter in some small fields but overall most places that need software could care less about most of these, as long as the business objectives are reached. And the business "winning" relies on more than just the code running its software.

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Some measures are better than no measures. Crying about what measures to use when you currently have none is just crying. That crying is the biggest distinction between software and all other examples these comments mention.

Measuring the wrong metrics is as good as not understanding the sport. It's best if the person advocating the wrong metrics step down.

Why? What are the worst consequences of wrong metrics? The problem there is that its a paradox. Seriously, consider what you are saying. You are saying measurements should not be conducted, because if somebody believes they are bad measures some mysterious unknown consequence will come to pass. The fallacy there is that the same consequences will come to pass irrespective of any measures conducted, because measurements alone do not dictate courses of action. However, if you don't conduct measurements you won't have any idea either way, which makes the very concern of bad measures entirely moot.

Bad measurements are only bad when they disqualify better measurements and better measurements only occur when some measure more directly proves/disproves the desired result.

When used to evaluate employee performance (the context here), no objective measures are better than bad measures.

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