Process Area 4.1 – Test Measurement

Purpose

The purpose of the Test Measurement Process Area is to:

• Identify, collect, analyse and apply measurements to support an organisation in objectively evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of
  • the test process
  • the productivity of its testing staff
  • the product quality and
  • support assessing the results of test process improvement.

The test management capability developed by the test organisation will be used to support management information needs.

Scope

The Test Measurement Process Area addresses the measurement activities at an organisational level.

For organisations that have multiple test groups or teams, test measurement will be performed identically across all test groups as part of one overall test measurement program.

Test Measurement covers practices such as

• defining measurement objectives
• creating the test measurement plan
• gathering data
• analysing data and
• reporting the results.

It will also encompass organisational test measurement activities that were defined at lower TMMi Levels, such as test performance indicators (a specific type of test measure) from PA 2.1 – Test Policy and Strategy and Generic Practice 3.2 – Collect improvement information.

This Process Area also provides support to the measurement activities for the other TMMi Level 4 Process Areas: Product Quality Evaluation and Advanced Reviews.

The measurement activities at the project level (for example the Process Area Test Monitoring and Control) will remain at the project level but will interface with the organisational Test Measurement Process Area.

Deployment

Some points to consider when looking at this Process Area:

• Are organisational goals and test measurements established?
• Is data collected consistently and completely according to defined processes and procedures?
• Is data analysed, presented and reported consistently and accurately according to a defined process, procedures and templates?