Introduction

In the previous article in this series, I offered a number of general observations about metrics, illustrated with examples. We talked about the use of metrics to manage testing and quality with facts. We covered the proper development of metrics, top-down (objective-based) not bottom-up (tools-based). We looked at how to recognize a good set of metrics.

In the next three articles in the series, we'll look at specific types of metrics. In this article, we will take up process metrics. Process metrics can help us understand the quality capability of the software engineering process as well as the testing capability of the software testing process. Understanding these capabilities is a pre-requisite to rational, fact-driven process improvement decisions. In this article, you'll learn how to develop and understand good process metrics.

The Uses of Process Metrics

As I wrote above, process metrics help us understand process capability. They provide a means of measuring a process. As mentioned in the previous article, we can talk about metrics as relevant to effectiveness, efficiency, and elegance.
 

Effectiveness process metrics measure the extent to which a process produces a desired result. Efficiency process metrics measure the extent to which a process produces that desired result in a way that is not wasteful and, ideally, minimizes the resources used. Elegance process metrics measure the extent to which a process achieves effectiveness and efficiency in a graceful, well-executed fashion.

Process metrics provide practical insights about your current capabilities. By benchmarking your process metrics against industry norms, you can see where your test process stands compared with other companies. This can give you good ideas about which parts of the process to improve. It can also help you avoid trying to improve the parts of your process where your capabilities are already sufficiently good.
 

It's important to remember that process metrics measure process capabilities. It's a classic worst practice of metrics to assume that process metrics measure team or individual capabilities. Most of the factors that control a process's capabilities are under control of management, not under control of the team or individual carrying out that process. If such metrics are used to reward or punish teams or individuals, then they will often find ways to distort the metrics in order to maximize rewards or minimize punishments. You will then lose the ability to truly measure the process, and thus lose the opportunity to identify ways to improve the process. 

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