Software Quality Metrics: How to Increase Your Product’s Quality
Are you a guru or novice of software quality metrics? Can you list from 5 to 10 quality metrics examples without thinking much? Don’t worry! This article will fix it. You should do the same with any errors or ambiguities in product development and maintenance. Such care of quality matters – only in this way will your solution bring real value to the intended audience.
So first is quality, but what else is behind the hype over measuring software quality in one word? Revenue. According to Global Market Insights, the 2020 year denotes the increased role of software testing in making money — over $40bn was gained. The wide adoption of AI enhances the testing process, automating some parts of QA’s routine and facilitating decision making. Nevertheless, the demand for manual QA isn't going to decrease. On the contrary, it’s expected to rise by 2030 as new products unstoppably come to stage.
So first is quality, but what else is behind the hype over measuring software quality in one word? Revenue. According to Global Market Insights, the 2020 year denotes the increased role of software testing in making money — over $40bn was gained. The wide adoption of AI enhances the testing process, automating some parts of QA’s routine and facilitating decision making. Nevertheless, the demand for manual QA isn't going to decrease. On the contrary, it’s expected to rise by 2030 as new products unstoppably come to stage.
At Peiko, we help businesses get timely insights from product quality metrics and take their products to a new level of quality. So join the team of agile leaders instead of observing the global trends! But first, get to know:
- How to improve a product with the software quality metrics before its release?
- In what way can you influence customer satisfaction while using your product?
- What shouldn’t you miss at the stage of software maintenance?
Benefits you gain from using software quality metrics
Being attentive to quality metrics in software engineering implies having your eye on the ball. Regular monitoring of the situation allows you to manage the game's future course and win - make a valuable product. Make sure all team members realize the potential of qualitative tests as it leads you to:
- Faster task fulfillment. On average, data analysts spend 80% of their time cleaning and sorting out data instead of focusing on the analysis. In this regard, software quality metrics speed up data processing and allow spending specialists’ effort on solving more urgent issues.
- Clarity across processes. Having visibility of what’s going on at each stage of the product’s building, testing, and maintenance are the keys to identifying and clearing up misunderstandings in complex projects. Sharing the specific quality check standards in advance will help a team be on the same page.
- Easier prioritizing. Using a set of relevant metrics, you ease up the PM’s life, whose primary responsibility is to track the project’s progress and lead the team in the right direction. Based on results acquired from the analysis, PMs can prioritize tasks rationally instead of following gut feelings.
- Efficient management. To ensure your software product creation goes up to the schedule, you need metrics. Predict possible risks, estimate time on your future steps, and make changes on the go when needed.
- Better decision-making. Metrics bring objectiveness to the table, so you’ll avoid impulsive decisions and costly mistakes. Instead, your project will be optimized to achieve the set goals of software quality assurance.
What is meant by the quality of software
You’ve already learned which benefits can drive you to choose different types of software quality metrics. Now, you might be interested in what they do to your product, right? Peiko understands your need for motivation. Add more to the list:
Your solution is stable
Nobody likes to use software that often glitches or works slowly. Bugs irritate customers, so the regular check of the app defects will show you whether it functions smoothly without crashing.
Your product is easy to support
Overcomplication will not be your friend when you think of software maintenance. Check its understandability before the next step! Metrics will assist you in weighing the size, structure, and consistency of the codebase to understand your product’s luck on that.
Your product supports testing well
The openness to various testing types measures your app’s further upgrade. If the changes require much time and effort, you’ll probably lose some of your users before accomplishing the task. Quality analysis prevents this from happening.
Your solution is portable
Different generations of users prefer different platforms to use. While mobiles are still taking the lead - 57% of internet traffic is generated by phone users - the market segment can significantly affect their preferences. That’s why you should adjust your solution to work well on different devices, and metrics set the basis for it.
Your product can be reused
Consumers’ behavior shifts require you to be agile, which means readiness to enact necessary changes in your product’s functionality, design, and user experience. For that, engineers need to reuse code easily. With metrics, you can measure the interdependencies between the assets and plan the new version of the product wisely.
Your solution is stable
Nobody likes to use software that often glitches or works slowly. Bugs irritate customers, so the regular check of the app defects will show you whether it functions smoothly without crashing.
Your product is easy to support
Overcomplication will not be your friend when you think of software maintenance. Check its understandability before the next step! Metrics will assist you in weighing the size, structure, and consistency of the codebase to understand your product’s luck on that.
Your product supports testing well
The openness to various testing types measures your app’s further upgrade. If the changes require much time and effort, you’ll probably lose some of your users before accomplishing the task. Quality analysis prevents this from happening.
Your solution is portable
Different generations of users prefer different platforms to use. While mobiles are still taking the lead - 57% of internet traffic is generated by phone users - the market segment can significantly affect their preferences. That’s why you should adjust your solution to work well on different devices, and metrics set the basis for it.
Your product can be reused
Consumers’ behavior shifts require you to be agile, which means readiness to enact necessary changes in your product’s functionality, design, and user experience. For that, engineers need to reuse code easily. With metrics, you can measure the interdependencies between the assets and plan the new version of the product wisely.
Major product quality metrics to access the value of your solution
While you’re equipped with the knowledge of why you need to measure the quality of your product, it’s time to speak about software quality metrics examples. And we suggest starting with the Agile metrics that allow your devoted team members to focus on improving the software product during its development. Ready? Let’s go!
- Lead time
It’s one of the significant software development quality metrics. It assesses engineers’ time spent on idea generation, UX & UI design, and development. The quicker the team can release the product, the more chances your potential consumers will find it up-to-date and useful. We at Peiko pay much attention to this factor while working on every project, including Papirus App, to ensure our speed of realization is about choosing the correct path and never sacrificing quality.
- Cycle time
Don’t confuse cycle time with lead time though they look similar. What differs between the two is timing. Or, to be exact, the time frames when the project starts and when it’s considered finished. The cycle period begins with the app’s development until the life cycle passes. In contrast, the lead time commences with getting the order and ends with delivering the ready version. See the difference? The cycle time metric helps evaluate the time necessary for each development stage and allocate resources correspondingly.
- Sprint velocity
Here’s when your PM’s talent should reveal to the maximum if you’re advocating the Scrum approach to planning. The metric accesses how much value the team can bring at each sprint. Calculated in story points, that’s the amount of work that developers can do under ideal conditions. The important tip here is to be realistic in estimates as this will affect the whole planning journey. After each sprint, the PM compares the real and expected story points to change the workflow if needed.
Essential in-process quality metrics
Are you eager to know how how to measure software quality in the process of testing? While QA specialists enter the scene, they should obligatorily check these quality metrics examples:
- Customer problems
While working on the project, predicting possible users’ problems is significant. The latter includes both non-defect and defect problems. They’re calculated in terms of monthly statistics — Problems per User-Month (PUM). In simple terms, the PUM metric shows how the app behaves after each intermediate stage or release. With it, you can enhance usability, problem rediscovery, and documentation.
- Customer satisfaction
That’s another easy way to find out how your TA reacts to the product, especially after some changes are enacted. It’s usually measured by customer surveys that access use satisfaction rate through the five-point scale — from very dissatisfied to very satisfied. By calculating the percentage of each customer category, QAs clearly see whether things go well or wrong.
- Code complexity
This metric is usually accessed with the automatic software tool that takes the information from the code and calculates the number of possible independent paths in a program. The higher it is, the more complex the code. Usually, if the code complexity is above 10, the code will be hard to maintain, and the developers’ team should work on simplifying the program.
Key maintenance quality metrics
At this stage, the quality metrics should focus on fixing the defects in the backlog. Usually, it goes in line with the DevOps practice that is also targeted at ensuring high software quality.
- Fix backlog
This metric calculates the number of reported problems that are left unsolved by the end of the week or month. Being guided by the trend chart, you obtain the opportunity to plan and manage the maintenance process productively.
- Backlog management index
This quality metric is also essential in managing the backlog of problems that are ‘already fixed’ or ‘are waiting for fixes.” Shortened as BMI, it’s calculated by the following formula:
- Fix quality
Last but not least, the maintenance quality metric evaluates the number of defective fixes — those that failed to solve the reported problem or caused a new problem after fixing. By calculating the time passed between the defect discovery and fixing, you reduce the bar of customers’ lowering interest in your product.
Put quality at the top of your business priorities
All the software quality metrics discussed in this article indicate that quality is the number one priority in attracting customers to the product that brings value. We highly suggest you check if your product is ready to go live throughout the custom software development.
Don’t skip the process of testing and debugging to avoid costly mistakes in the future! Contact Peiko, and you’ll get the unique opportunity of improving your product before it becomes a commodity.
Don’t skip the process of testing and debugging to avoid costly mistakes in the future! Contact Peiko, and you’ll get the unique opportunity of improving your product before it becomes a commodity.
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