Testing KPIs in your projects

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Hi all,

What are the KPIs related to testing activities that you use for tracking your projets ?

Best regards

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Hi @emna_ayadi,

When it comes to KPI, I believe in Goodharts Law. i.e. When projects are tracked using KPIs, then KPIs stop being KPIs and they become just targets that people try to achieve by bending rules/numbers.

I have worked in projects where each and every minute detail was captured for KPI (test numbers, execution numbers, productivity, coverage, bug rates, time to deliver… you name it. They measured everything) and on other side also worked on projects which focus more on team dynamics and customer feedback and ‘one goal’.

Former were in no way better performing than later, in fact there were more focus (and more conflicts) in justifying KPIs than actually thinking about customers. Like all other team members I really enjoyed working on 2nd type of projects.

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I’m not using KPIs but indicators of testing activities. Some ideas:

  • how often reports of problems from outside the product development team, arrive to the team and you’re surprised about them? I target <5/year, in a product having 1000+ problems in a year found and known from testing;
  • how can you do deep testing fast/faster and more efficient - higher information gain; can you find plenty of activities with no information value, or very little done by the testers? repeating same tests, lots of documentation, high time to report tickets, long time to explain bugs(long thread of comments about a bug’s meaning), skewed results to do environment problems; long time to setup and switch test env; looking too broad and not in the right places - how often do you check the code or with the devs the context of a feature/product change?; limited set of test techniques, tools, knowledge of product/project, domain…etc…
  • do you manage to inform the stakeholders effectively about the quality of the product after you’ve tested it? can the release managers make good decisions based on your input?
  • relation to people:devs, other testers, other teams, stakeholders, business, marketing, sales, call-centers, etc…Can you effectively communicate/collaborate, help and be helped by any person in the benefit of the product and its users?