While the methodological rigor of computing research has improved considerably in the past two decades, quantitative software engineering research is hampered by immature measures and inattention to theory. Measurement-the principled assignment of numbers to phenomena-is intrinsically difficult because observation is predicated upon not only theoretical concepts but also the values and perspective of the research. Despite several previous attempts to raise awareness of more sophisticated approaches to measurement and the importance of quantitatively assessing reliability and validity, measurement issues continue to be widely ignored. The reasons are unknown, but differences in typical engineering and computer science graduate training programs (compared to psychology and management, for example) are involved. This chapter therefore reviews key concepts in the science of measurement and applies them to software engineering research. A series of exercises for applying important measurement concepts to the reader's research are included, and a sample dataset for the reader to try some of the statistical procedures mentioned is provided.

翻译：尽管计算研究的方法论严谨性在过去二十年中显著提升，但定量软件工程研究仍受限于不成熟的度量指标及对理论的忽视。测量——即依据原则为现象分配数值——本质上具有挑战性，因为观测不仅基于理论概念，还取决于研究的价值观与视角。尽管先前已有多次尝试呼吁关注更先进的测量方法及定量评估信度与效度的重要性，测量问题仍被广泛忽视。其原因尚未明确，但可能与典型的工程学和计算机科学研究生培养项目（相较于心理学和管理学等领域）的差异有关。因此，本章回顾测量科学中的核心概念，并将其应用于软件工程研究。文中包含一系列将重要测量概念应用于读者研究实践的练习，并提供一个样本数据集供读者尝试部分提及的统计分析方法。