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Testing Metrics: Why Measure, What to Measure, and How to Measure

In my experience, one of the most challenging conversations an organization has around quality is how to measure it.  You can google testing metrics and find yourself drowning in hundreds of key performance indicator (KPI) options.  The reason there is no one size fits all is simple; the culture and what is important to each organization is unique.  The old adage: what gets measured, gets done is certainly true in this context.  Understanding why you are measuring, what you are measuring, and what you will do with the data, is important when identifying what KPIs to implement for your organization.

This article was published on the testing framework for ACT. Please follow the link to read more!

https://blog.theactframework.com/testing-metrics-why-measure-what-to-measure-and-how-to-measure

Responses

  1. Test Center of Excellence: Why Your Company Would Benefit and How to Set It Up Avatar
    Test Center of Excellence: Why Your Company Would Benefit and How to Set It Up

    […] For more information on WHY to measure, WHAT to measure and HOW to measure, check out my recent blog post on the […]

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  2. karlosmid Avatar
    karlosmid

    Hi Johanna, thank you for this post about the important testing topic.

    You provided examples for all testing metrics as countable property, number of defects, number of user stories, number of test cases.
    Reading that it seems that software quality also could be countable, but from my experience, this is not true. All countable metrics could be tweaked towards the desired values.

    I am interested what to you think on BBST approach in explaining How To Measure Software Testing Effectiveness (https://blog.tentamen.eu/how-to-measure-software-testing-effectiveness/)

    Thanks!

    Regards, Karlo.

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    1. Johanna South Avatar
      Johanna South

      Hi, Karlo!

      Thanks for the read and comment.

      I believe your line, “All countable metrics could be tweaked towards the desired values.” is very true. It’s really important to not measure quality for the sake of measuring quality. Instead, determine what your organizational values and goals are and find the metrics that help you get there. The metrics in my blog are only meant to give you a good cross sampling of possibilities. But it is up to the reader to determine what most helps them reach their highest organizational effectiveness.

      I am very excited to read your referenced approach but your link only takes me to the TL;DR version. Is there a longer version with more information?

      Lastly, how does your company track metrics? What’s important to you?

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      1. karlosmid Avatar
        karlosmid

        Hi Johanna, thanks for the answer!

        Regarding the linked blog post, there is (not so visible) link about how to assess tester work: https://blog.tentamen.eu/bug-count-alternatives-to-assess-the-quality-of-software-testers-work/

        These are topics that I found important for testing quality.

        Regards, Karlo.

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  3. A Personal Approach to Risk-Based Testing – The QA Connection Blog Avatar
    A Personal Approach to Risk-Based Testing – The QA Connection Blog

    […] started tracking our organization’s Mean TIme to Detect (MTTD) a defect, and immediately noticed that the majority of defects opened were being discovered later […]

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