GUEST EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

摘要

It is well known that measurement has played a fundamental role in helping the scientific and engineering disciplines to evolve and progress. Similarly, and with the passage of time, measurement has become a key analytical tool in the maturation of other fields as well, such as business administration and a significant number of the social sciences. Measurement in the natural sciences and engineering fields is based on a large body of consensually based and internationally accepted knowledge, built up over centuries and millennia. By contrast, measurement in the computer sciences and software engineering fields has a much shorter history, only a few decades long, and so considerable research will be required to develop a solid body of knowledge for these disciplines and to spread the use of measurement throughout the software industry.