4. Use Metrics to Manage the Project
Many times, members of a project team intuitively understand that changes in the development lifecycle could improve the quality and reduce the cost of a project, but they are unwilling to implement changes without objective proof of where the changes should occur. By coming together on a regular basis during a project and especially at the end of the project, the team can review the test metrics and other available information to determine what improvements can be made. Here is an example of how metrics can be used to make process changes during a test effort.
Imagine that the test team is halfway through the test execution phase of a project, and the project team is reviewing the existing metrics. One metric stands out -- less than 50 percent of the test cases have been executed. The project manager is concerned that half of the testing time has elapsed, but less than half the tests are completed. Initially this looks bad, but the test lead points out that 30 percent of the test cases are blocked. The test lead explains that one failure in a particular module is preventing the test team from executing the blocked test cases. Moreover, the next test release is scheduled in four days and none of the blocked test cases can be executed until then. At this point, using objective information available from the metrics, the project manager is able to make a decision to push an interim release to the test team with a fix for the problem that is causing so many of the test cases to be blocked.
In this example, if the metrics had not been tracked, the project manager might not have been able to make that critical decision, the test team would have lost four days of testing, and possibly lost the confidence or respect of the project team.
