Software Test Metrics Are Highly Useful
Software development is quite a complicated process. It involves many technicalities, and each step needs to be tackled properly. Software test metrics aid in the improvement of a software development process.
Software test metrics can be defines as standards of measurements. They have been used in the IT industry, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an activity, in a software project. Though test metrics are designed specifically to measure test effort, they can be made to measure many other types of activities, related to software development of a project.
There are many forms in which the test metrics exists. Basically, software test metrics are of two kinds, viz., Base Software Test Metrics and the Calculated Software Test Metrics.
A base metrics measures the raw data gathered by the Test Analyst during the testing effort. The base metrics provide measure and provide project status reports to the project managers and test leads. Calculated metrics take the information from the base metrics, and convert this information into more useful information. A test lead is responsible to gather these metrics, and track them at the various levels. Both the above software test metrics provide valuable information that can help improve the software development life cycle significantly. As metrics are of various forms, below are some tips that must be kept in mind while instituting the metrics. The first step is to keep the metrics simple. A simple metric contains the basic information about the number of test cases to be executed; their status, whether executed, not executed, passed, failed or blocked, time of their execution; and the date. This basic information is tracked by the Test Analyst. It also means the metrics should be rather simple to understand. Thus, they should be defined clearly, without any ambiguous definitions or explanations. The second tip is to create meaningful software test metrics. A metrics is meaningful if it provides full feedback to the software project team, on the process and its developmental cycle, right from analysis to testing. So, meaningful metrics should remain objective. The next step is to track the software test metrics. To keep track of metrics, throughout the developmental life cycle, is crucial as the metrics help the team view the development trends, and make a report of these activities at the end of the project. The next step is to use the metrics for project improvement. Many times, it happens the team realizes the development process needs some improvements. But, they don't know the ways to do it. Thus, software test metrics measure the ways of improvement, and provides the project team with the necessary information. Software test metrics are certainly useful in improving the complex software development process.
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