Software Quality Assurance: Lecture 41. This lecture will cover the following: measurement lies at the heart of many systems that govern our lives; economic measurements; military measurements; medical measurements; atmospheric measurements; measurements in every day life;...
Introduction to Quality Metrics - Lecture # 41 The software industry is in a constant state of change With advances in hardware, software, graphical, and multimedia technologies, applications are constantly being rethought, redesigned, and reengineered New development methods and techniques are continuously evolving Because of this environment of continuous change, the software environment or software business can be extremely difficult to manage Effective change management techniques require consistent and meaningful measures The ability of an organization to effectively and efficiently manage data provides a true competitive advantage and adds value to the company’s bottom line IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology defines “measure” as an activity that ascertains or appraises by comparing to a standard Measurement lies at the heart of many systems that govern our lives Economic measurements Military measurements Medical measurements Atmospheric measurements Measurements in every day life Prices, weight, size, etc Some aspect of a thing is assigned a descriptor that allows us to compare it with others Measurement is the process by which numbers or symbols are assigned to attributes of entities in the real world in such a way as to describe them according to clearly defined rules An entity is an object or an event in the real world An attribute is a feature or property of an entity Typical attributes include the area or color, the cost, or the elapsed time We often talk about entities and their attributes interchangeably ‘It is cold today’ ‘Usman is taller than Ali’ We can make judgments about entities solely by knowing and analyzing their attributes Measurement is a process whose definition is far from clear-cut Color is an attribute of a room How can we compare ‘blue’ with ‘off-white’ Can we measure intelligence of human? Is I.Q an accurate measure of the human intelligence Accuracy and margin of error of measurement Analyze and draw conclusions about measurements 10 Customer Problems - On the other hand, is the increase related to greater demands placed on the system by end users as their experience with the product matures? With the help of profiling features, you can determine the load on the product 83 Customer Satisfaction - This metric is typically measured through a customer satisfaction survey Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Very dissatisfied 84 Customer Satisfaction - Percent of completely satisfied customers Percent of satisfied customers Satisfied and completely satisfied Percent of dissatisfied customers Dissatisfied and completely dissatisfied Percent of non-satisfied customers Neutral, dissatisfied and completely dissatisfied 85 Scopes of Three Quality Metrics DEFECTS CUSTOMER PROBLEMS CUSTOMER SATISFACTION 86 Establishing a Measurement Program 87 Establishing a Measurement Program - Identify the reason for establishing a measurement program Identify the needs of your audience and stakeholders Determine the level of organizational resistance and how you would address it Involve as many staff members as you can to overcome resistance 88 Establishing a Measurement Program - Determine how much time you have Investigate if there are any measures already in place that you can use Decide which metrics to start collecting first Ensure there is compatibility of measurement goals with the goals of the organization Establish a phases implementation plan 89 Establishing a Measurement Program - Establish quantifiable targets such as cost, personnel, and schedule targets for the activities and outputs of each phase of the development process Review the measurement plan with appropriate managers and executive management 90 Establishing a Measurement Program - Obtain commitment from upper management to provide you with additional resources or tools, if the need arises Measure the actual values against the targets Determine the variances and the reasons for the variances 91 Establishing a Measurement Program - Establish a plan to address the variance and standardize the plan to prevent these variances from occurring in the future Establish history with which to compare future data Integrate metrics into the development process as a part of the way you business 92 Establishing a Measurement Program - Focus on success 93 Implementing by Prototyping Consider prototyping the plan before complete implementation 94 Measurement Cycle After collecting measurement data Analyze the data Identify the problem area Develop procedures to address the problem area Get buy-in from appropriate staff Train staff in the new procedures Implement new procedures Continue the measurement activity Change the process if need be 95 Causes of Failure Executive management not committed Measurement plan focused on only one metric Data was not utilized as intended 96 References Software Quality: Analysis and Guidelines for Success by Capers Jones Customer-Oriented Software Quality Assurance by Frank P Ginac (Chapter and 3) Inroads to Software Quality: “How-To” Guide and Toolkit by Alka Jarvis and Vern Crandal, PH, 1997, (Chapter 8) Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering by Stephan H Kan (Chapter 4) Software Metrics: A Rigorous & Practical Approach, by Norman E Fenton and Shari L Pleeger, 2nd Edition, PWS Publishing Company, 1997 (Chapter 1) 97 ... the quality of the product 29 Before, we discuss software quality metrics, let’s first discuss attributes of software quality 30 Attributes of Software Quality 31 Attributes of Software Quality. .. include the number of software developers, the staffing pattern over the life cycle of the software, cost, schedule, and productivity 28 Software Quality Metrics Software quality metrics... time? 10 seconds, 13 seconds?) 46 Common Measurements - The system must have state-of-the-art technology (What is considered state-of-theart?) They system must have clear management reports