Key Software Testing Metrics for Quality Assurance of a Product

Organizations across the globe are working hard to build high-quality software products and improve quality assurance efforts. Quality is an essential aspect that users consider while selecting a product. Therefore, software testing becomes crucial to the development process. Equally important are the software testing metrics highlighting the status of challenges, progress, and testing quality. In this blog, we’ll cover some key software testing metrics that determine a  product’s health and quality.

Process Metrics

Test Case Effectiveness

The metric measures how efficiently test cases identify problems. It shows the quality of tests especially when high-value test cases are running. Additionally, it also determines the ability to fix the bugs effectively. 

Cycle Time

It measures the time it takes to complete the length of a testing process. Cycle time also provides information about passed, blocked, unsuccessful, unexecuted, and incomplete tests. Such insights make it easier to view the test run status holistically. 

Error Rectification Time

This metric exhibits the time it takes for the team to fix a problem – from the time of identification to the solution. Additionally, it offers a better idea of how quickly you’ll be able to release the product in the market while aligning with the time and budget constraints.

Product Metrics

Quantity of Defects

It is a software testing metric that assists test teams to delve into various elements of software quality. By identifying the number of defects, teams have a better understanding of the quality of software products. Additionally, test engineers are able to implement the remediation measures timely.

Cause and Severity of the Defect

This metric allows test engineers to visualize the severity of the defects and provide insights into their cause. Having this information helps the tester determine how the defect will impact the product software and the production cycle. 

Passed/Failed Test Case

This metric highlights the number of passed test cases. These insights help in ensuring the functionality, stability, performance, and compatibility of the software under test. It also informs them about the efforts required to mitigate the number of failed test cases. 

Project Metrics

Test Coverage

It measures the test efforts and provides information about how much of the product is tested successfully. It is a critical quality indicator of the test plan and measures the amount of testing that has been performed.

Rework Effort

It helps testers calculate the rework effort needed to resolve a defect post-product delivery. Additionally, the metric also helps in making necessary modifications to the product to ensure that the error does not reoccur. Testing teams also leverage this metric to gain insights into the time and cost needed to fix a defect. Subsequently, they can set an approximate deadline for production deployment. 

Cost of Testing

It is a metric that defines the overall cost associated with the testing process. Infrastructure, tools, and people all contribute to the testing process. The team, therefore, needs to know the overall cost to determine what they intended to spend and what the actual spending was in the end. 

Budget and Schedule Variance

It is an important metric that illustrates the difference between planned and actual costs/schedules. The metric assists teams in improving operational and financial planning, staying within budget, and taking up opportunities that boost time to test.

Software testing metrics are crucial in quality assurance and allow agile teams and testing teams to take their testing a notch higher. Regular measurement of the test process across various metrics allows teams to build a strong baseline and track progress efficiently. Furthermore, focusing on key process, product, and project metrics ensure that your end product meets the performance, functionality, security, and reliability standards.