Thursday, February 13, 2014

Software Development Metrics Essentials -By Sam Miller


It is impossible to imagine modern society without computers and different kinds of programs that are meant to facilitate our life and make it more interesting. Software development is a time-taking process that results in the introduction of a new software product and includes several stages, such as research, prototyping, development, modification, upgrading etc. The basic goal here is to create a reliable and quality software application that will meet the needs and expectations of a certain category of users. That is why there is an increased need for high control of the product quality.

Unfortunately, the software industry cannot ensure adequate measurement practices these days. Lots of software developers agree on the fact that they just do not understand what aspects have to be evaluated. More often, they assess the wrong issues, which does not allow drawing proper and timely conclusions. Consequently, introduction of software development metrics is the number one goal for lots of businesses today.
The fact is that any software metric is associated with ambiguous assessment rules and can have several definitions at a time. This hampers the measurement process and leads to insufficient amount of data related to software expenses, quality, personnel effort and lots of other issues that matter in this business. Are there any chances to get over these problems successfully? Luckily, there are. You just have to know what aspects have to be measured and what metrics can contribute to this process. With regard to this, it makes sense to point out that different metrics are used to assess the very procedure of software management, the potential customers and, of course, the personnel. Hence, there are indicators that have to be tracked just because they seem to be essential for this business. There are also those that can give the managers of your company a deeper insight into the personnel performance. Other metrics can tell a lot about the software quality and current problems associated with a new product.
All metrics that are used for measuring the process of software development can be subdivided into 4 groups. Thus, web application testing is represented by such indicators as stress testing, structure perspective, load testing and quality perspective. These metrics have to be analyzed consistently, because they are associated with performance tracking, which is an essential part of the software development process.
Functional testing of software is the next aspect that requires evaluation. It is generally used to reveal basic bugs of a new software product or system. Key performance indicators here can be tracked from the point of view of 4 perspectives, including testing and performance, resource allocation and quality assurance, learning and testing skills, methods of testing.
The next category of metrics that require measurement is associated with software programming and coding, which involves a few technical aspects that affect the quality of the final product. Basic KPIs that matter in this group are related to performance perspective, the process of analyzing the process of software programming, coding assessment and evaluation of coding outcome.
The final category of metrics, which comprise the "Software design" group, includes several elements that are important when it comes to the evaluation of design patterns and modeling languages. This is done by means of applying such indicators as quality, logical size, exception handling as well as design effort.
To learn more about software development metrics please stop by our website where you will find lots of BSC and metrics related products. Trial versions of apps and non software products are available.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7270391

No comments:

Post a Comment