[R] Method for reduction of independent variables

[rubystallion]

Hello

I am currently investing software code metrics for a variety of software
projects of a company to determine the worst parts of software products
according to specified quality characteristics. 
As the gathering of metrics correlates with effort, I would like to find a
subset of the metrics preserving significant predictive power for the
"problem value" while using the least amount of code metrics. 

I have the results of 25 metrics for 6 software projects for a combined 9355
"individuals", i.e. software parts with metrics.
However, as many metrics only measure metric values above a predefined
limit, 58% of the responses for independent variables are 0.

Which method can I use to determine a reduced set of independent variables
with significant predictive power?
As I do not have a statistics background, I would also appreciate a simple
explanation of the chosen method and sensible choices for parameters, so
that I will be able to infer the reduced set of software metrics to keep.

Thank you in advance!

Johannes
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