Cockburn is an authority in the field of Agile and Iterative methodologies. Several noted authors such as Craig Larman have quoted him extensively in numerous works. This specific measure-the Cockburn Scale-is a useful metric for those who practice this discipline. See Agile and iterative development by Craig Largman on how this metric is used to express the complexity of software project when comparing various agile/iterative methodologies. It would be a shame if this is deleted from here.