Measurement of Test Metrics – A Point of View

Paper Presentation at STeP-IN Theme Conference (September 2007)
Kiran Marri - Group Test Manager, IVS, Infosys Technologies.

Software Testing has evolved over the last decade. Standards and processes around testing services have emerged from the shadows of the software development life cycle to the software test life cycle. This radical shift in the way we test and what we measure has helped organizations meet their IT challenges and respond to changes in market expectations. The conventional test approach has given way to innovative and out-of-the-box test strategy and management. With the focus on QA gaining importance to meet market demand – predictable quality, shorter testing times and lower cost of testing – there is continuous need to measure and strengthen the metrics in Testing. There is also a strong need to measure Test metrics from the business point of review rather than program perspective. This helps to determine the cost of testing from the organization perspective and help them to control their IT expenditure.

Quality Analysis with Metrics

Paper Presentation at STeP-IN Theme Conference (September 2007)
Ameeta Roy - Tech Lead, IBM, India/South Asia.

Why do we care about Quality?
Software may start small and simple, but it quickly becomes complex as more features and requirements are addressed. As more components are added, the potential ways in which they interact grow in a non-linear fashion.

How measurements have helped the organization & the End customer

Conference Plenary at STeP-IN Theme Conference: Test Measurements & Metrics (September 2007)
Ganesh Arunachala - Head of Quality, Horizontals, Wipro Technologies

The business or organisation objectives out of a testing project are:

What is the quality of testing? (Defect slip through, Defect rejection ratio, When to stop testing).
What is the efficiency of testing (Testing productivity).
Rewarded with special achievement award for CMMI Level 5 certification.
Schedule, Effort & CSAT - Tools usage & Productivity enhancing tools or methods.

Using the GQM Paradigm to build a Product Testing Metrics Framework

The GQM (Goal, Question. Metric) Paradigm is an approach developed by Victor Basili in the 1980s as a three level measurement model to arrive at metrics from business goals to drive decisions. Since then, GQM has proven to be an extremely effective approach to selecting and implementing metrics in many organizations. In a software product development environment, product testing plays a key role in ensuring that customers get a high quality product on time. To ensure that this goal is met, it is essential to measure the health of the product through the product development life cycle progressively and use the data from such measurements to make crucial decisions relating to the product release. Product test managers often have to answer several key questions relating to