SOFTWARE TESTING PRESENTATION

NAME:SIDDHI S.PANGAM ROLL NO:41 CLASS:T.Y.B.C.A PRESENTATION TOPIC:METRICS AND MEASURMENTS METRICS IN TESTING IS ESSENTIAL

METRICS

What Are Software Metrics Software metrics are an integral part of the state-ofthepractice in software engineering. More and more customers are specifying software and/or quality metrics reporting as part of their contractual requirements. Industry standards like ISO 9000 and industry models like the Software Engineering Institutes (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) include measurement. Companies are using metrics to better understand, track, control and predict software projects, processes and products. The term software metrics means different things to different people. When we buy a book or pick up an article on software metrics, the topic can vary from project cost and effort prediction and modeling, to defect tracking and root cause analysis, to a specific test coverage metric, to computer performance modeling. These are all examples of metrics when word is used as a noun.

Metrics is defined as"The continuous application of measurement-based techniques to the software development process and its products to supply meaningful and timely management information, together with the use of those techniques to improve that process and its products."

Software metrics can provide the information needed by engineers for technical decisions as well as information required by management. If a metric is to provide useful information, everyone involved in selecting, designing, implementing, collecting, and utilizing it must understand its definition and purpose.

Software metrics are numerical data related to software development. Metrics strongly support software project management activities. They relate to the four functions of management as follows: 1. Planning - Metrics serve as a basis of cost estimating, training planning, resource planning, scheduling, and budgeting. 2. Organizing - Size and schedule metrics influence a project's organization. 3. Controlling - Metrics are used to status and track software development activities for compliance to plans. 4. Improving - Metrics are used as a tool for process improvement and to identify where improvement efforts should be concentrated and measure the effects of process improvement efforts.

A metric quantifies a characteristic of a process or product. Metrics can be directly observable quantities or can be derived from one or more directly observable quantities. Examples of raw metrics include the number of source lines of code, number of documentation pages, number of staff-hours, number of tests, number of requirements, etc. Examples of derived metrics include source lines of code per staff-hour, defects per thousand lines of code, or a cost performance index.

The term indicator is used to denote a representation of metric data that provides insight into an ongoing software development project or process improvement activity. Indicators are metrics in a form suitable for assessing project behavior or process improvement. For example, an indicator may be the behavior of a metric over time or the ratio of two metrics. Indicators may include the comparison of actual values versus the plan, project stability metrics, or quality metrics. Examples of indicators used on a project include actual versus planned task completions, actual versus planned staffing, number of trouble reports written and resolved over time, and number of requirements changes over time. Indicators are used in conjunction with one another to provide a more complete picture of project or organization behavior. For example, a progress indicator is related to requirements and size indicators. All three indicators should be used and interpreted together.

MEASURMENT

Software Measurement Process standard, decision criteria are the thresholds, targets, or patterns used to determine the need for action or further investigation, or to describe the level of confidence in a given result. In other words, you need decision criteria to obtain guidance that will help you interpret the measurement results.

Examples of Performance Measurement Performance management techniques are typically used to direct employee assessment and designed to motivate your staff. Examples of employee performance management activities include setting performance standards, implementing reward and recognition programs and instituting programs to stimulate innovation and creativity. Corporate or business performance management involves analyzing business results to determine if the company is achieving its strategic business goals.

According to Watts Humphrey, there are four major roles for software measurement: [Humphrey89] Control: Control type metrics are used to monitor our software processes, products and services and identify areas where corrective or management action is required. Evaluate: Evaluate type metrics are used in the decision-making process to study products, processes or services in order to establish baselines and to determine if established standards, goals and acceptance criteria are being met. Understand: As part of research studies, understand type metrics can be gathered to learn about our software processes, products and services. Predict: Predict type metrics are used to estimate the values of base or derived measures in the future. We will use these different types of roles to explore establishing decision criteria for different types of measures.

WHY METRICS IN TESTING IS ESSENTIAL

Software testing is the process of identifying the flaws or defects in the system and make sure it is compliant with the client requirements before releasing it to the market. But testing can never assure 100% bug free software. This might show the inconsistency and inefficiency of testing process or testing methodologies followed, it could also account the human errors in case of manual testing or script errors in case of automated testing. This directly impacts the quality of the software. Hence, in order to improve the software quality, certain protocols and rules need to be laid down and complement the efficiency of the software.

Following are the points that support why software testing metrics and reports are necessary. Metrics help in easy tracking of the project status and also helps in presenting the statistics to the senior management in an organized way. Back tracking can be very easy if every action is tracked appropriately. Metrics and reports help in collecting historical data using which further processes in testing can be made more effective Project control, change control and reporting can be easily accomplished without hassles and confusion. Software Metrics and reports help in both project management and process management Metrics can directly influence both the efficiency and effectiveness of a software Helps in early defect detection and defect removal thurs reducing the cost of defects Assists the managers in effective decision making Metrics also act as a benchmark for estimations and provide bottleneck to the testers Manages risk at ease