measurement & reporting

Articles

Learning from Experience

People often point to requirements documents and process manuals as ways to guide a new tester. Research into knowledge transfer, as described in The Social Life of Information, suggests that there is much more to the process of learning. Michael Bolton describes his own experiences on a new project, noting how the documentation helped ... and didn't.

Practical Test Reporting, Part 2

In Part 1, David Freeman wrote about how to start a basic test metrics program. In Part 2, he shows how to combine the historical information to predict how your future projects may track–kind of like creating your own metric "magic eight ball."

Practical Test Reporting

Developing a usable and consumable test-metric-reporting system is a challenge for all testing organizations. This article describes a system employable by small and large organizations and all test efforts. By using existing tools, test teams can show current progress and predict future test efforts.

Less Is More

Twentieth Century architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who coined the dictum, "less is more," is known for his simple designs. Interestingly, this concept has proven true time and time again in the software industry. In this week's column, Linda Hayes explains reasons why simplifying your team when it comes to quantity is so vital and shares some surprising statistics on how team size can affect quality.

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Better Software Magazine

Learning from Experience

People often point to requirements documents and process manuals as ways to guide a new tester. Research into knowledge transfer, as described in The Social Life of Information, suggests that there is much more to the process of learning. Michael Bolton describes his own experiences on a new project, noting how the documentation helped ... and didn't.

Metrics that Motivate

To implement a meaningful incentive system for your team, you need to select metrics that encourage the behaviors you need and the results you want. But first you have to decide what you need and want.

Where Do I Go From Here?

Most professionals have a detailed career ladder upon which to climb and grow their careers. But in many test organizations that ladder has only one rung—and it leads to management. If management isn't your path of choice, these tips can help you market yourself and add value to your career while you build your own technical career ladder.

What's on Your Dashboard?

Just because a metric is easy to capture doesn't mean it is useful. The metrics that are really needed are the ones that can help you make good decisions. Find out how to establish a project dashboard with meaningful metrics that will guide your project safely to its destination without getting bogged down in an endless pursuit of unnecessary information.

Metrics You Can Bet On

An old adage says that you cannot manage what you cannot measure, but Mike Cohn thinks differently. Here, he offers suggestions on when to use metrics and when you can manage without, as well as some guidelines to help you choose your metrics carefully.

Metrics Motivation

Typical metrics are used to predict an outcome by comparing plans to actual results. They are objective and don't influence what you are trying to measure. Biased metrics, on the other hand, are a valuable tool for deliberately altering behavior to improve the performance of a group. Find out how biased metrics can be used on your projects to pinpoint problems in specific areas and to influence people to fix them.

Measurements that Matter

No one starts a project with the goal of failing, but some metrics experts claim that 80 percent of software metrics initiatives fail. Just as your software project has goals for success, you should have goals for success in your metrics initiatives. Find out what you can do to better your chance for success.

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