How do you adopt emerging software quality metrics?

1 Understand your objectives

Before you choose or create any software quality metrics, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with them. What are your quality goals and criteria? Who are your target users and customers? What are their requirements and preferences? How do you align your software quality metrics with your business strategy and value proposition? By answering these questions, you can define your objectives and select the most relevant and meaningful metrics for your software products.

2 Review existing metrics

There are many software quality metrics that have been developed and used by various organizations, frameworks, and standards. Some of the common ones include defect density, code coverage, cyclomatic complexity, technical debt, customer satisfaction, and usability testing. You can review these existing metrics and see if they match your objectives, context, and data sources. You can also learn from their strengths and limitations, and adapt them to your specific needs and scenarios.

3 Explore new metrics

Besides reviewing existing metrics, you can also explore new metrics that emerge from the latest trends, innovations, and challenges in software development. For example, you can consider metrics that capture the quality aspects of agile, DevOps, cloud, AI, or IoT software products. You can also look for metrics that reflect the impact of software quality on user behavior, engagement, retention, and loyalty. You can use various sources, such as industry reports, blogs, podcasts, webinars, or forums, to discover and learn about new software quality metrics.

4 Validate and refine your metrics

Once you have selected or created your software quality metrics, you need to validate and refine them to ensure their accuracy, reliability, and usefulness. You can do this by testing your metrics on real or simulated data, comparing them with other metrics or benchmarks, and soliciting feedback from your team, stakeholders, and users. You can also monitor and evaluate your metrics over time, and make adjustments as needed to reflect changes in your software products, environment, or goals.

5 Communicate and use your metrics

Finally, you need to communicate and use your software quality metrics effectively to achieve your objectives. You can do this by presenting your metrics in clear and concise formats, such as dashboards, charts, or reports, that highlight the key insights and actions. You can also share your metrics with your team, stakeholders, and users, and explain how they relate to their interests and expectations. You can also use your metrics to guide your decisions, actions, and improvements in your software development processes and products.