The paper describes results of a project: The analysis of credibility and reproducibility of surface roughness measurement results. This research was made in five university research centers and five Polish industrial laboratories (car and aircraft engines and engine parts, bearings). All the parties that took part in the project were equipped with laboratory profilometers on which measurements were performed. For comparison purposes samples after typical finishing operations were selected, i.e. after honing, grinding or super finish. Several measurement standards were used as well. The project proved that measurements of roughness provide different results and requires further work to find good explanations and reasons of these differences. This would help to improve analysis of surfaces and eliminate discrepancies of roughness measurements. Research conducted on profile measurements gave unsatisfying results because of high parameter variability. It can effect in finding better reasons to introduce three-dimensional surface measurements in Polish industrial laboratories, because they are more representative of the surface topography.