System and method to produce business case metrics based on defect analysis starter (DAS) results

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10235269-B2
Application number	US-55832409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2009
Priority date	Sep 11, 2009
Publication date	Mar 19, 2019
Grant date	Mar 19, 2019

Abstract

A method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions. The programming instructions are operable to receive data including defect analysis defect analysis starter (DAS)/defect reduction method (DRM) defect analysis data of a software development project and process the data. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to determine one or more business metrics based on the data and generate at least one report based on the one or more business metrics. The one or more business metrics comprises at least one of a benefit for shifting defect removal earlier, a benefit for preventing an injection of defects, a benefit for reducing a cycle time, a benefit of reducing invalid defects and a benefit for reducing production defects.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure for determining when to remove defects in a production lifecycle of a software product, the method comprising:
receiving data including defect analysis starter (DAS)/defect reduction method (DRM) defect analysis data of a software development project to develop the software product, the DAS/DRM defect analysis data comprises a quantity of defects in the software product discovered by each of a plurality of defect triggers, each comprised of conditions under which a defect is uncovered during testing of the software product, and an estimated percentage of defect reduction in the software product after preventative actions are taken by each defect trigger;
processing the data to identify improvements which have an impact to reduce defects in the software product, and which of the improvements have a highest impact among the identified improvements to reduce defects in the software product to determine which defects to remove and when to remove them to control the number of defects in the completed software product, the processing comprising:
determining cost versus benefit received for making the improvements to provide an improved software product with a reduced number of defects,
resolving defects in the software product during development of the software product before marketing the software product;
performing a calibration comprising adjusting a defect volume and a distribution by defect trigger in accordance with the received quantity of defects discovered by each defect trigger;
applying the preventative actions, after the calibration has been performed, to determine a reduction in the defect volume and the distribution by each defect trigger; and
calculating a benefit for preventing an injection of defects comprising calculating costs associated with avoidance of discovered defects and costs associated with avoidance of escaped defects according to the determined reduction in the defect volume and the distribution by each defect trigger;

determining one or more business metrics based on the data, wherein the one or more business metrics comprises the benefit for preventing the injection of defects; and
generating at least one report regarding proceeding with the development of the software product based on the one or more business metrics,
wherein:
at least the step of processing the data is implemented using a processor of the computer infrastructure;
the determining the reduction in the defect volume comprises calculating a product of the percentage of defect reduction and a total defect volume of the software development project;
the one or more business metrics further comprise a benefit for shifting defect removal earlier in a life cycle of developing the software product;
for determining the benefit for shifting defect removal earlier:
the receiving the data comprises receiving a potential defect and defect distribution by triggers and the quantity of defects discovered by each trigger; and
the processing the data comprises:
shifting defects by type from a source activity to an optimally-timed discovery, wherein a defect is one of directly shifted and shifted with a defect probability table; and
calculating a shifting benefit as a defect fix cost difference between discovering one or more defects at the source activity and discovering the one or more defects at the optimally-timed discovery;

for the discovered defects, the benefit for preventing the injection of defects is the sum of a testing cost and a fix cost; and
for the escaped defects, the benefit for preventing the injection of defects is determined based on a business case,
the method further comprising;
applying prevention actions to prevent an injection of defects into the software product and to shift defect removal earlier in the lifecycle of developing the software product based upon the benefit calculated for preventing the injection of defects into the software product and the benefit determined for shifting the defect removal earlier in the lifecycle of developing the software product; and
applying prevention actions to remove production defects at a time, in the production lifecycle of the software product, determined by a comparison of a first maximum potential decrease in the number of production defects if production defect removal is made in a first test phase of the production lifecycle of the software product and a second maximum potential decrease in the number of production defects if production defect removal is made in a second test phase of the production lifecycle of the software product which is subsequent to the first test phase.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DAS/DRM defect analysis data further comprises a production defect rate after DAS actions taken, an improved valid rate, and a current invalid rate.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the data further comprises receiving one or more organization inputs, wherein the determining the one or more business metrics is additionally based on the one or more organization inputs.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more organization inputs comprises at least one of a test effort, a test efficiency, defect escape probability tables, a current project profile, potential defects and a test process.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving the data further comprises receiving one or more other inputs, wherein the determining the one or more business metrics is additionally based on the one or more other inputs.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more other inputs comprises at least one of an average cost to fix defect in different phases of a software development life cycle and daily rate for a human resource.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more business metrics further comprise a benefit for reducing the cycle time; and
wherein for determining the benefit for reducing the cycle time:
the receiving the data comprises receiving a test efficiency; and
the processing the data comprises:
determining a defect volume shifting from a source activity to an optimally-timed discovery; and
calculating the benefit for reducing the cycle time as the defect volume shifting from the source activity to the optimally-timed discovery divided by the test efficiency.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more business metrics further comprise a benefit of reducing invalid defects; and
wherein for determining the benefit of reducing invalid defects:
the receiving the data comprises:
receiving potential defects and defect distributions by triggers and an improved valid rate and current invalid rate; and
receiving an average fix cost for defects in different activities; and

the processing the data comprises:
calculating a total reduced invalid defect volume as the product of a total defect volume and a difference between the current invalid rate and the improved valid rate; and
calculating the benefit of reducing invalid defects as a product of the total reduced invalid defect volume, the average fix cost for defects in different activities and an adjustment percentage.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more business metrics further comprise a benefit for reducing production defects; and
wherein for determining the benefit for reducing production defects:
the receiving the data comprises:
receiving potential defects and defect distributions by triggers, which indicates potential production defects;
receiving a production defect rate after DAS preventative actions are taken; and
receiving an average fix cost for defects in different activities;

determining a reduced production defect volume as a difference betwee

Assignees

• Bassin Kathryn A
• Kagan Steven
• Li Shao C
• Li Zhong J
• Liu He H
• Skrabanek Susan E
• Tan Hua F
• Zhu Jun
• IBM

Inventors

• Bassin Kathryn A
• Kagan Steven
• Li Shao C
• Li Zhong J
• Liu He H
• Skrabanek Susan E
• Tan Hua F
• Zhu Jun

Classifications

• G06F11/3616 Primary

  using software metrics · CPC title

• G06Q10/06

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G06Q10/103

  Workflow collaboration or project management · CPC title

• G06Q10/067

  Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title