An entity is an object (for example, a process, product, project, or resource) that is to be characterized by measuring its attributes. Typical engineering objects can be classified as products (e.g., design document, network, source code, and test case), processes (e.g., design process, testing process, requirements analysis process), projects, and resources (e.g., the systems engineers, the software engineers, the programmers and the testers). An entity may have one or more properties that are of interest to meet the information needs. In practice, an entity can be classified into more than one of the above categories.