Each minute of our life is a lesson but most of us fail to read it. I thought I would just add my daily lessons & the lessons that I learned by seeing the people around here. So it may be useful for you and as memories for me.
Article by Pranav Sharma…
In our technical blog series we will be discussing on Software Test Metrics, Metrics types and their uses.
Software Metrics is a Measurement Based Technique which is applied to processes, products and services to supply engineering and management information and working on the information supplied to improve processes, products and services, if required. Metrics help organization to obtain the information it needs to continue to improve its productivity, reduce errors and improve acceptance of processes, products and services and achieve the desired Goal.
For decades, industries across the world have been measuring processes to improve efficiency and quality. You’ve probably heard the catchphrase, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Without measuring, we’re guessing what “success” is. With data, we can make educated decisions quickly.
Software metrics plays an important role in measuring attributes that are critical to the success of a software project. Measurement of these attributes helps to make the characteristics and relationships between the attributes clearer. This in turn supports informed decision making.
The aim of this document is provide to insights into the Testing Metrics and different concepts and phases involved in the Metrics. This document addresses metrics lifecycle, various software testing metrics, need for having metrics, evaluation process and arriving at ideal conclusion.
Introduction to test metrics
The field of software engineering is affected by infrequent, incomplete and inconsistent measurements. Software testing metrics are a way to measure and monitor your test activities. More importantly, they give insights into your team’s test progress, productivity, and the quality of the system under test.
Software testing is an integral part of software development, providing opportunities for measurement of process attributes. The measurement of software testing process attributes enables the management to have better insight in to the software testing process.
When we ask ourselves “What have we tested?” metrics will give us better answers than just “we have tested it.” Different teams measure various aspects depending on what they want to track and control or improve.
A metric usually conveys a result or a prediction based off the combination of data.
- Metric is a quantitative measure of the degree to which a system, system component, or process possesses a given attribute.
- Through test metrics we can measure software quality.
- It gives clear measurement of quality and completeness of product.
- It helps to understand the improvement required in project, taking decision and change in technology.
- It helps to take the decision for next phase of activities i.e. estimate the cost and schedule of future projects.
Why Test Metrics? Why Should You Care?
The aim of collecting test metrics is to use the data for improving the test process, rather than to just show fancy reports. This includes finding tangible answers to the questions:
- How long will it take to test?
- How much money will it take to test?
- How bad are the bugs?
- How many bugs found were fixed? reopened? closed? deferred?
- How many bugs did the test team did not find?
- How much of the software was tested?
- Will testing be done on time? Can the software be shipped on time?
- How good were the tests? Are we using low-value test cases?
- What is the cost of testing?
- Was the test effort adequate? Could we have fit more testing in this release?
Types of Metrics:
At high level Test Metrics can be broadly classified into two – Basic and calculated metric.
Base Metric: Also known as direct metric.
- Base metric constitutes raw data gathered by all test engineers throughout the testing process.
- Base metric is prepared by Test Engineers.
- It helps us to provide status report to test lead and project manager.
Reports contain data like:
- Total number of test cases
- Number of test cases Executed.
- Number of test cases passed
- Number of test cases failed
- Number of test cases blocked
- Number of test cases Re-executed.
- Number of defects found
- Number of defects accepted
- Number of defects rejected
- Number of defects deferred
- Number of critical defects
- Number of planned test hours
- Number of actual test hours
- Number of bugs found after shipping
- Test case Execution time.
Calculated Metric: Also known as indirect metric.
- Calculated metric is nothing but a conversion of Base metric data into more useful information.
- Calculated metric is usually prepared by Test Leads.
- It helps Test Lead to track the progress of project at different level or project as a whole
Please feel free to share your story and any lessons you learned, you experienced, you came across in your life in the comments below.
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