Table of Contents
Table of Contents
“Deliver value to your customers” – isn’t that the ultimate goal of a software development process? A software application will only mean a thing if it is worth the time of your customer. It is futile to know how fantastic your application is if you are losing money from it. But what if end users don’t like your app? How do you know if your app is performing well?
Your software development process is a ship, and software metrics act as a lighthouse for your software development sails. It can become a beacon of continuous improvement in the ocean of numbers and data.
It is more about enhancing the software development process or environment through numbers or metrics.
Numbers don’t reveal the reasons, nor can you infer any conclusions from them. They are a reference point to show you where the key processes need improvement.
For example, a high open rate and a low close rate across several iterations could mean that the development team is prioritizing production issues or working towards reducing the technical debt. Rather than working on new features. It could also indicate that the person who knew how to solve the problems has left the organization or any other cause. Hence, the root cause can never be deduced just from the numbers.
This article discusses utilizing data and software development tools to continuously improve and get good scores on software development metrics and KPIs. They act as a medium to incorporate “Value” into the software and lead to increased business revenues.
Software metrics measure quantifiable or countable software attributes that make it crucial. It includes four prevalent management roles of planning, organization, control, and improvement.
Several metrics are interconnected throughout the software development process. They give relevant information to everyone involved in choosing, creating, implementing, and gathering. They primarily include:
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Software Metrics are helpful for assessing the viability, caliber, and development of a software testing effort. Identifying the value you want to provide is the main objective of implementing software metrics.
Without metrics, it would be very difficult to quantify, explain, or show the quality of software. Metrics also offer a rapid snapshot of the state of software testing efforts, enabling improved control through informed choices.
Software testing initiatives have always included metrics, but over time, the kind of data that is gathered and presented has changed.
A specified method of evaluating the goals and effectiveness of the test teams is essential due to the increased priority being placed on the quality of applications. Metrics from software testing are used to accomplish goal-tracking.
Additionally, correctly chosen metrics can help organizations and businesses improve their testing processes and periodically monitor their progress. In addition to discussing the financial advantages of software projects, test suppliers now need to share metrics that demonstrate productivity, efficiency, and efficacy.
The quality of the program can be easily improved and checked. In reality, there is broad consensus that placing an emphasis on quality boosts output and encourages a culture of continual improvement.
The gathering of data is the cornerstone of assessing software and associated processes, allowing us to better control the creation, cost, and quality of software products. There are things that can be tallied and regularly measured, like baseline dimensions, and there are things like flaws, effort, and time that can run on a timetable.
Metrics for measuring software quality help managers increase the efficiency of software development processes. Software metrics also have the following benefits:-
For all software development projects, not all metrics are relevant. It is advised to combine precise and objective measurements to provide meaningful answers to practical business concerns.
The Lead Time metric calculates the amount of time that elapses between the start of an activity and its completion. It offers you a more comprehensive understanding of how long it takes to complete a feature that a client has requested.
If you use an Agile approach, it can help you spot possible problems that may arise between the time a task is created and when a software developer begins working on it.
The Cycle Time statistic calculates how long it takes to start and finish an activity. It is crucial for determining how quickly a company is developing.
Team Velocity
The number of software units a team produces during an iteration or sprint is known as team velocity. It is not appropriate to compare software development teams using this internal metric. Deliverables are defined differently for each team and change over time for each individual software development team.
One of the most important agile metrics is throughput, which is primarily used to track the precise number of jobs completed within a sprint. Once the desired outcome has been obtained, make sure to immediately align it with the ongoing company objectives. Throughput metric measurement helps with recognizing a team block and discovering whether the crew is overworked. This can be accomplished by contrasting the typical throughput with the workload at hand.
A given time period’s worth of production difficulties is tracked to determine open/close rates. It’s critical to monitor the trends in software statistics.
It is another name for customer satisfaction scores. This score measures the customer experience and growth of business. It includes various scores like Customer Effort Score(CES) and Customer Satisfaction Score(CSAT). Remember the screen where you are asked the question “How likely are you to recommend this company to your friend or colleague?”
The scale extends to a range of -100 to +100 for customer experience. A customer indicating -100 indicates the worst experience and +100 shows that all your customers are spreading the word about you. 
The success of individuals and teams is typically measured using productivity indicators. There are several techniques to gauge productivity and the amount of work performed. For managers who are committed to ongoing development and progress, these measures are vital. Utilize the metrics required to assess the status of the project, developer productivity, the amount of additional development time required, and other factors.
Based on information from code commits, open/closed PRs, merging commits, and PR comments, the work log offers insightful information. It aids in the visualization of cooperative dynamics and procedural flow. Additionally, it aids in enhanced momentum and quicker delivery by assisting in the discovery of bottlenecks.
Code contributions made during the active days of a development project are identified.
Code churn occurs when a piece of code is quickly discarded or rewritten. It is a measure that shows how frequently a particular code is changed. When an engineer finds it difficult to write a particular piece of code, usually because of ignorance or poor teamwork, code churn is unavoidable.
Key indicators that let you monitor your business actions in real time are operational metrics. They can be used to boost productivity and evaluate the results of software development. Operational indicators also demonstrate how effectively a business carries out its regular duties.
This incident statistic shows the typical interval between a software or technological product’s fixable problems. The reliability of the software generated increases with the length of time between unforeseen problems or outages.
It is a different technical event measure that describes the typical amount of time needed to recover from a system or product breakdown. Use it to determine how long an outage lasts, from the moment something goes wrong to the moment it starts working again. Additionally, it frequently matters when evaluating a team’s stability.
It is determined by dividing the number of times the program failed by the number of times it was utilized.
Software quality is reflected in security measurements. To demonstrate how software development teams are creating security responses, these metrics must be tracked over time.
The distribution of faults identifies the area of the software that is most vulnerable to errors.
This kind of measure calculates the proportion of lines of code that successfully pass a test procedure. As a result, it is possible to assess a software’s verification quality and determine whether the code is understandable and maintainable. Combine it with additional metrics to completely grasp the likelihood of faults in the software.
The risk metric calculates the likelihood of a risk that a specific contractually committed activity may create. Less risk implies better, more reliable code for users. Moon Technolabs uses it as a pattern-matching engine to search for anomalies.
Metrics related to usability and customer experience are intimately related. Formally speaking, it refers to the extent to which certain users can use a product to accomplish their objectives. Consider software efficiency, accessibility, memorability, learnability, and satisfaction while performing any usability assessment.
They frequently also take into account users’ emotional reactions, such as how much they trust the particular software. These measurements can be seen as a link between business, product, and design. Because of this, you should additionally consider loyalty and usability.
There are 10 software development key performance indicators KPIs. Let’s see these are:-
The software development key performance indicators KPIs are some of the deciding factors for the performance of the software.
Flow efficiency is the ratio of your active time to your total time.
Work in progress isn’t always what it seems to be. There can be a waiting period before the software developers can start working on a new job or project.
By dividing the time you actively work by your entire cycle time, you can determine flow efficiency.
To better comprehend what caused the shortcomings, you could connect instances of low efficiency to particular time frames.
The quantity of jobs that are interrupted during a specific time frame can be used to measure interruptions. It’s best practice to count not only completed tasks but also interruptions for each individual activity.
Velocity refers to how much work your development team can complete during a sprint. One of the important parameters in the agile software development metrics is a sprint is a set period where specific tasks are set out to be done.
Different ways to measure velocity are implemented. The most popular measurement is story points which measure the effort that goes into a software product.
It only takes about three sprints before you will have a good idea of your development team’s average velocity. Development velocity helps in estimating how real the team goals are and with what speed and direction the goals will be fulfilled.
Cycle time is one of the software development KPIs, which can be calculated as time spent working on a certain task. It is used to measure the efficiency of the software development process.
Being able to oversee the development process by looking at cycle time charts makes it one of the most well-liked software development KPIs.
It measures the total time taken by a task, feature, or user story to move from initial request to completion. It includes the full development cycle, including time spent waiting or in backlog queues, ongoing work, and any evaluations or approvals necessary before the assignment is completed.
Lead time provides insight into the overall effectiveness of your development process and the team’s response to client wants or shifting specifications. By monitoring lead time, you can identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies and take action to improve the procedure, ultimately cutting down on the time it takes to deliver new features or updates to your clients.
Code coverage is one of the software development KPIs used by the development team to gauge code quality.
Continuous delivery and test-driven development (TDD) are given top priority in this crucial software metric for the software development lifecycle.
This metric tells you how much your source code executes during testing.
This software development KPI is hard to measure, however, it provides an essential insight into your product’s success. Coding conventions make code orderly and simple to comprehend. Simple codes are significantly simpler to adapt and maintain, they are preferable than complex code.
A cyclomatic complexity metric is used to measure the number of independent paths, indicating the code’s simplicity by giving a number as an output. Lower the number simpler the code. The higher the number complex is the code.
The sprint burndown is the next software metric, which visualizes a sprint’s completed work and contrasts it with its overall scope. Software development teams use this measure to monitor sprint completion success.
A development team can spot inconsistencies between expected and actual progress and modify teams’ performance using sprint burndown as a metric. This metric is also used to monitor the progress of story points and identify bottlenecks.
Release burndown tracks the status of the release. The range of this statistic is wider than sprint burndown. Additionally, the statistic is beneficial since it can guide development teams in controlling the release of a product.
Software development teams can use a release burndown chart to determine whether they are on, or exactly on, schedule.
When stakeholders can anticipate an ROI post-release, businesses will have hard evidence to support their claims. Release burndown helps in the information about any delays or early launches of the software systems.
Release burndown charts resemble sprint burndown charts in appearance. Story points are plotted on the y-axis, while sprints are represented on the x-axis.
The visual representation of software development is used to follow the progress of work items. It is seen through several stages of the overall development process. The graph displays the quantity of work items at each workflow stage. Cumulative flow is divided into distinct categories, such as “Backlog,” “In progress,” “In review,” and “Approved” to see the workflow graphically.
The various software development metrics are used by the development teams to measure progress. By looking at various parameters we can gain valuable insights as to how the software development project is on the scale or how customer satisfaction can be rated with the app’s performance. One important thing to note is that these key metrics are just a means to an end.
Software Metrics serve as the means to reach the end of “providing value” using the software development process.
Moon Technolabs can help you in your journey of software development lifecycle by implementing the best agile approach and best tools. To ensure that no part of your development experience is ever abandoned or overlooked, Moon Technolabs gives comprehensive data gathered and correlated from several project management tools and software applications.
Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.
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