AbstractSoftware is a product in serious need of quality control technology. Major effort notwithstanding, software engineering has produced few metrics for aspects of software quality that have the potential of being universally applicable. The present paper suggests that, although universal metrics are elusive, metrics that are applicable and useful in a fully defined setting are readily available. A theory is presented that a well‐defined software work group can articulate their operational concept of quality and derive useful metrics for that concept and their environment.