SELECT AN OPERATIONAL MEASURE AND STRATEGY

The four key operational measures—defects, time, cost, and risk—will provide you ample information for managing and improving your current situation. The measures are interrelated, and it is helpful to select a primary strategy for setting up your measurement effort. Since many project risks and costs are directly affected by variance in defects and time, the choice of strategy is really between product quality and productivity.

Defects take time to fix. Unplanned time quickly turns into schedule risks. Schedule risks can become increased project costs. So if your defect rates are high, focus your attention on defect-related measurements.

If your defect rates are not high, but your estimates are generally off, then time would be the best measure to start with. Inaccurate estimates of time increase risk to meeting milestones, which in turn can become additional costs. Moreover, developers and testers working under pressure can make mistakes, which increases product quality risks.

Some of the reasons for inaccurate estimates or plans may be out of your control. Likewise, some of the root causes for defects may fall within departments other than your own. Nonetheless, measuring time or defects will give you enough information about your own organization to improve your performance and lower your risks.