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

  • US 10,235,269 B2
  • Filed: 09/11/2009
  • Issued: 03/19/2019
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2009
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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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.

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