One of the four major themes of the UK government's Alvey Programme which was established in 1983 was software engineering. This theme was subdivided into three special interest areas: formal methods, reliability and metrics and IPSEs (Integrated Project Support Environments). This paper describes one Alvey project which was unusual in as much as it encompassed the first two areas. The major objective of the project was to develop rigorous techniques for analysing and measuring structural properties of systems. The paper frankly describes the achievements and failures of the project, the lessons to be learnt and, in particular, how the very perception of software measurement changed fundamentally during the project. There are recommendations both for future research work in this area and for the nature of future collaborative projects.