About Software Test Metrics
What is mean by Test Metrics?
Test metrics accomplish in analyzing the current level of maturity in testing and give a projection on how to go about testing activities by allowing us to set goals and predict future trends.
Test metrics should cover basically 3 things:
1. Test coverage
2. Time for one test cycle
3. Convergence of testing
The objective of Test Metrics is to capture the planned and actual quantities the effort, time and resources required to complete all the phases of Testing of the SW Project.
NUMBER OF TEST CASES EXECUTED
NUMBER OF BUGS DETECTED
NUMBER OF BUGS FIXED
NUMBER OF PRIORITY BUGS FIXED
etc.,
Test Metrics is a mechanism to know the effectiveness of the testing that can be measured quantitatively. It is a feedback mechanism to improve the Testing Process that is followed currently.
Testing metric is used to track actual testing progress against plan and therefore to be able to be proactive upon early indications that testing activity is falling behind
Normally many a times some test cases are skipped or omitted due to the following:
> Ambiguity - Requirements with potential multiple meanings.
> Completeness - Items left to be specified.
> Understandability - The readability of the document.
> Volatility - The rate and time within the life cycle changes are made to the requirements.
> Traceability - The traceability of the requirements upward to higher level documents and downward to code and tests.
Thus Normal Test Related Metrics are:
> Quantity of tests Prepared / Performed
> Quantity of Defects found
> Type of Defects found
> Time taken - To Plan, Develop and Time taken - To Plan, Develop and Execute tests
> Cost of defect management; bug Cost of defect management; bug Reporting, fixing and re-testing reporting, fixing and re- testing
> THE COST OF TESTING - THE COST OF TESTING - OR NOT TESTING OR NO Testing at all.
Thus the Test team activity metrics are for:
how long to:
> Plan stage or phase of testing
> Write the Test systems Design
> Prepare Test environment and develop utilities.
> Prepare test scenarios, scripts, data and expected results
> Write automated test scripts
> Execute tests for each significant stage of testing.
> Raise Defect reports and manage issues
> Retest fixed defects.
Indicators that show the quality of the software under test and the effectiveness of the testing activities.
A Test Metric is a standard means of measuring some attribute of the software testing process. They are a means of establishing test progress against the test schedule and may be an indicator of expected future results. Metrics are produced in two forms – Base Metrics and Derived Metrics.
Example of Base Metrics:
# Test Cases
# New Test Cases
# Test Cases Executed
# Test Cases Unexecuted
# Test Cases Re-executed
# Passes
# Fails
# Test Cases Under Investigation
# Test Cases Blocked
# 1st Run Fails
Test Case Execution Time
# Testers
Example of Derived Metrics:
% Test Cases Complete
% Test Cases Passed
% Test Cases Failed
% Test Cases Blocked
% Test Defects Corrected
A test metric is a way to measure the size of a project of testing to aid you to estimate the quantity of effort you will need to execute a work of testing.
A Test metric is just like any other tool used to measure the quality of software product to serve best to the customer.
Test metrics is a process for analyzing the current level of maturity while testing and predict future trends, finally meant for enhancing the testing activities which were missed in current testing will be added in next build to improve or enhance the Testing Process. e.g. Adding a testcase which a tester found was missed during current testing, when a next build comes for regression the missed testcase will be added first thus enhancing the testcase document.
Test metrics can give us the info about the software quality,and help the PM to make decision. Of course, the process of test metrics is similar to the normal metrics process