Testing metrics in a software development company
Heikkinen, Elli Sofia (2015)
Heikkinen, Elli Sofia
2015
Tietotekniikan koulutusohjelma
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-05-06
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201504221211
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201504221211
Tiivistelmä
Software testing is an important part of the software development process. Its purpose is to provide information about the quality of software. This information is often used in decision making and in improving software quality. When tested systems grow in size and complexity, testing gets difficult to manage in terms of scheduling, prioritising, monitoring and reporting, for example. For test management to be effective, great effort is needed. However, without proper metrics, test management is difficult. The primary goal of this thesis was to develop a basic set of testing metrics to aid in test management of a software company called M-Files that develops an enterprise content management (ECM) system carrying the same name as the company. Additionally, the secondary goal was to identify ideas for metrics that help improving testing and product quality.
Literature was reviewed for information on testing metrics, instructions on how testing metrics should be developed and what kind of metrics are popular in software development field. A process standard IEEE Std 1061-1998 (R2009) Software Quality Metrics Methodology standard for developing software quality metrics was partially applied in this thesis. Also, the current testing and test management practices in the case organisation were studied and their problems in test reporting were further analysed. Semi-structured interviews and periodic reviews were used to identify and refine metrics requirements in the organisation. From the requirements, a set of metrics was defined, prioritised, and implemented with M-Files Reporting tool. M-Files Reporting tool was chosen because it allows automatic data extraction, existing tools for data analysis and visualisation, and a way to deliver reports easily through the organisation.
As a result, a set of seven basic metrics and their representations in reports were implemented. The developed reports answer the organisations urgent needs for test management and reporting support. Also, several metrics requirements and improvement points for future development of processes and tools were identified. This thesis is a first step of a more fundamental metrics and process development task. Along with the developed metrics, the organisation gained a lot of useful knowledge about metrics and their development process for future utilisation.
Literature was reviewed for information on testing metrics, instructions on how testing metrics should be developed and what kind of metrics are popular in software development field. A process standard IEEE Std 1061-1998 (R2009) Software Quality Metrics Methodology standard for developing software quality metrics was partially applied in this thesis. Also, the current testing and test management practices in the case organisation were studied and their problems in test reporting were further analysed. Semi-structured interviews and periodic reviews were used to identify and refine metrics requirements in the organisation. From the requirements, a set of metrics was defined, prioritised, and implemented with M-Files Reporting tool. M-Files Reporting tool was chosen because it allows automatic data extraction, existing tools for data analysis and visualisation, and a way to deliver reports easily through the organisation.
As a result, a set of seven basic metrics and their representations in reports were implemented. The developed reports answer the organisations urgent needs for test management and reporting support. Also, several metrics requirements and improvement points for future development of processes and tools were identified. This thesis is a first step of a more fundamental metrics and process development task. Along with the developed metrics, the organisation gained a lot of useful knowledge about metrics and their development process for future utilisation.