Key Software Quality Metrics Every Developer Must Know About

Important Quality Metrics That Should be Monitored Throughout the Project Development

Every software development team or agency wants to build products with complete perfection. They understand that it is a rigorous task that requires precise focus and attention all the time. In fact, these two attributes are not just enough for the success of any software project. There are some other rules and metrics present in the process that needs sharpened focus all the time. These few points are called software quality metrics, and they are considered an integral part of every development process. Some metrics are gathered and analyzed during the development, while some are gauged at the end of the whole cycle.

Being a developer, you should have a sound knowledge about software quality metrics. It is an important understanding that allows you to offer specialized software quality assurance services. You know that particular points should be met when working on any task. This allows you to not only prepare better, but also work with a better approach that can give quality results at the end. Those who do not pay attention to these metrics, often fail to bring perfection in the development, eventually leading to the failure of the whole project.

So, having a good understanding of software quality metrics is extremely important. If you do not know much about it, you will struggle a lot while working on any project. This blog is therefore precisely written to let you know about the importance of software quality metrics. Its functions or methodology is not connected with the practices of development, instead, it gauges the results that is obtained by those operations.

Let us first start from the basics understanding the core definition of software quality metrics. Then, we will take a look at the importance of these metrics, analyzing why professional agencies always care about them.

What is Software Quality Metrics?

Software quality checkpoints

The success of any software project depends on the results it produces after deployment or execution. A proactive team always keeps this fact in mind, and devise their strategies according to it. They chalk out some plans that will lead to producing quality results. These points are formulated containing some numbers or benchmarks. It lets the development team know that these points should be met under all circumstances to make any project successful. These metrics are often documented, so that everyone can see them while working on different tasks.

By setting precised metrics, the analysis of the results obtained through development process becomes easier for teams. They can easily gauge performance and efficacy of the software products through these metrics. If the results do not look great as defined in the metrics, then specific development tasks are recalibrated, so that they can produce the desired outcome. This is the simple and basic way of analyzing different results that are bound to follow the benchmarks that have set by the teams.  

Importance of Software Quality Metrics

Quality control

Working with a clear understanding of software quality metrics makes various things easy for development teams. It lets them know how various cross platform development tasks should be done, so that specific results or numbers can be met at the end. A lot of times, teams devise their working strategy and operations keeping these software quality metrics in mind. They understand that the achievement of particular goals can only be done with the help of specialized strategy. Without that, they will simply fall short of the expectations that have been put in place to make any software project successful.

To make the evaluation process transparent and more effective, many companies often hire specialized teams to monitor software quality metrics. By following this method, they get better evaluation results because separate resources come into play when a top-notch analysis is required. It helps to reduce errors in the project, allowing development teams to produce better efficient applications. This is the core reason why every software agency always prefer to follow particular quality metrics to achieve perfection in the end-products. 

Key Software Quality Metrics to Monitor

Software quality metrics

Now that we have understood the basic definition of software quality metrics, lets move forward understanding the key points that should be monitored by the development teams. It is important to only keep particular metrics in mind, because you cannot watch over everything simultaneously during the development or deployment process.

If you do not know much about these metrics, take a look at the factors listed below. It will let you know which things should be given attention to bring positive results in the end. 

Production Metrics

The first thing that should be chalked out before starting the development process is the amount of production. This is a key metric in which you will decide how much production is needed in each cycle time. As a team lead or manager, you need to let everyone know about the particular production targets. It is important because production metric sets goals in everyone’s mind, allowing them to work with more attention. If this metric is not set or defined clearly, then teams will miss their targets, taking down the pace of the product software development.

To keep the production speed in check, there are some other sub-metrics you need to focus on. It includes important factors like velocity, productivity, task scopes and more others things. Keeping all them in check would guarantee a smooth production rate, unless any external roadblock do not comes into the play.

The sub-factors like velocity defines the total time developers will take to complete a specific task. Similarly, scope describes the main goal of a task that should be achieved at the end. These metrics will not only ensure to streamline the production process, but will also provide optimum results at the end. That is how efficacy and performance can be achieved without compromising anything on the quality.

Agile Metrics

Software developers around the world prefer to work with agile methodology. They understand the usefulness of this method how it can help to achieve quality results at the end. Most of them love the factor of flexibility that agile methodology offers to them. It does not binds you with any particular resource or task. Instead, agile gives you the freedom to manage tasks as per the emerging priorities. This is what makes this methodology different from others. It ditches the sequential method of executing tasks, formulating its own approach to handle things in real time according to the priority.

However, to get best results from agile, you also need to follow some particular metrics. These points ensure that the agile method is perfectly followed. It includes different factors such as cycle time, lead time and more others. The agile managers usually understand these terms, hence they always try to formulate their plans according to them.

So, if you want to follow agile metrics properly, try to first get a lead who has got good understanding of core process metrics. He will ensure that every task is managed according to specific principles. These guidelines will be definitely discussed before the start of the development process, so that everyone in the team remains on the same page.

Security Metrics

Maintaining a failsafe security mechanism is considered very important in software applications. It is an important job of developers that should be given utmost attention all the time. Unfortunately, due to some core development jobs, the security part often gets neglected. It has been seen commonly in many cases that security protocols are not set by the team initially during the development. As a result, they were forced to go again in the development phase to figure out different security features that are deemed necessary for the project.

To make sure the security part does not gets neglected, there are few metrics you nee to take into notice while developing software applications. It includes monitoring of key points like intrusion attempts, breach incidents, MTTD and more others. Keeping these points in the core metrics allows you to build a strong security plan without disrupting any development task during the process.

At the end of the project development, a comprehensive review of these security metrics ensures the cyber safety of applications. It is best advised to fix some numbers and then test your application’s security according to them. It will allow you to gain better insight how the software app is performing keeping in check the threats of intrusion or breaches from the internet.

Quality Assurance Metrics

Next up, we have got quality assurance, an important action that should be done before deploying any application. The QA part is often seen as a difficult task because it requires a good technical knowledge about the product. Furthermore, it can only be done once you have set any benchmark to gauge the performance of the application. This is why setting precised metrics is considered important, as it allows you to work smartly knowing which actions should be taken to improve the performance of the product.

To make QA testing effective, you need to define metrics based on some obvious questions. It includes queries like what type of issues needs to tested, how components can be unified and tested in a cohesive environment and more others. Handling these issues with the help of benchmarks enables you to evaluate the quality of apps perfectly.

It should be noted that deployment of applications would only be done once the metrics set in the QA part will fulfil the given points. If anything goes below the score, then deployment will not be done, and developers will be tasked again to resolve the QA issues immediately. That is how the chain of process should work if the QA metrics are not met in any type of software project.

Benefits of Working with Precise Software Quality Metrics

Software product checking

Keeping a close eye on several software quality metrics always proves to be beneficial for development teams. It provides plenty of advantages in the areas of productivity, decision making and more others. If you do not know how these metrics can elevate your product’s performance, take a look at the points defined below.

Productivity

A team that follows quality metrics closely always produces better results in the end. This productivity is subjected to their analysis of goals that have been put forward. They duly understand the functional requirements of the project, and how they should be met by keeping core metrics in mind. It makes them productive in every work and gives their skills an opportunity to grow more by following the standards set in the quality metrics chart.

Data management

The management of data becomes a lot easier when you know about the metrics and the strategies that will ensure its stated numbers. A lot of times, it has been commonly noted that development teams gets confused after seeing the data. This usually happens when they do not understand the importance of quality metrics. They try to go with their random plans to achieve unspecified goals, which is certainly a wrong approach. It could only be avoided by knowing the right quality metrics, as that allows you to manage the data better.

Decision Making

The understanding of quality metrics prior to the start of development process allows you to take better smart decisions. This is a key advantage that elevates the importance of software quality metrics. When you know about the numbers that should be achieved at the end, then it becomes easier for you to take different decisions accordingly. Basically, you are just not relying on numbers here, but the process that will ensure to achieve them at the end of the cycle.

Final Words

That concludes our entire article in which we have discussed different types of software quality metrics in detail. As a developer or QA engineer, you should have a sound knowledge about these metrics. It allows you to devise plans smartly at the start of different processes. Having numbers in mind gives you the edge to select strategies and plans accordingly, no matter how big or complex the project is. This is why it is recommended to always keep in mind the core metrics that will ensure success of any project. This blog has defined plenty of them, so that every beginner can understand what type of metrics should be followed while developing any software application.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for a company that could help you to develop advanced software applications, get in touch with us today. We will assist you to develop cutting-edge software products, rightly as per the custom demands.

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