SYSTEM AND METHOD TO PRODUCE BUSINESS CASE METRICS BASED ON DEFECT ANALYSIS STARTER (DAS) RESULTS

• US 20110066557A1
• Filed: 09/11/2009
• Published: 03/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tan, Hua F., Kagan, Steven, Zhu, Jun, Skrabanek, Susan E., Li, Zhong J., Bassin, Kathryn A., Liu, He H., Li, Shao C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,235,269 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3616 using software metrics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management

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

Claims

1. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to:

receive data including defect analysis starter (DAS)/defect reduction method (DRM) defect analysis data of a software development project;

process the data;

determine one or more business metrics based on the data, wherein 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; and

generate at least one report based on the one or more business metrics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the DAS/DRM defect analysis data comprises at least one of a production defect rate after DAS actions taken, a quantity of defects discovered by each trigger, an improved valid rate and a current invalid rate, and percentage of defects reduction after preventative actions are taken by trigger.

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 for determining the benefit for shifting defect removal earlier:

the receiving the data comprises receiving a potential defect and defect distribution by triggers and defects discovered by the DAS for 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.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein for determining the benefit for preventing the injection of defects:

the receiving the data comprises receiving from the DAS/DRM defect analysis a percentage of defects reduction after DAS preventative actions are taken; and

the processing the data comprises;

determining a defect volume to be reduced by calculating a product of the percentage of defects reduction and a total defect volume of the software development project; and

calculating the benefit for preventing the injection of defects.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

for discovered defects, the benefit for preventing the injection of defects is the sum of a testing cost and a fix cost; and

for escaped defects, the benefit for preventing the injection of defects is determined based on a business case.

10. The method of claim 1, 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.

11. The method of claim 1, 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.

12. The method of claim 1, 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 between potential production defects and the production defect rate after DAS actions; and

the processing the data comprises;

calculating the benefit for reducing production defects as a product of the average fix cost for defects in different activities and the reduced production defect volume.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a service provider at least one of creates, maintains, deploys and supports the computer infrastructure.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein steps are provided by a service provider on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis.

15. A system implemented in hardware, comprising:

a data receiving tool operable to receive data including at least one of defect analysis starter (DAS)/defect reduction method (DRM) defect analysis data, organization data and other data;

a data processing tool operable process the data and determine one or more business metrics based on the data, wherein 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; and

a report generation tool operable to generate at least one report based on the one or more business metrics.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the DAS/DRM defect analysis data comprises at least one of a production defect rate after DAS actions taken, a quantity of defects discovered by each trigger, an improved valid rate, a current invalid rate and percentage of defects reduction after preventative actions are taken by trigger;

the organization data 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; and

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.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein for determining the benefit for shifting defect removal earlier:

the data receiving tool is operable to receive a potential defect and defect distribution by triggers and defects discovered by DAS/DRM for each trigger; and

the data processing tool is operable to;

shift 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

calculate 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.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein for determining the benefit for preventing an injection of defects, the data processing tool is operable to determine a defect volume to be reduced by calculating a product of a percentage of defects reduction and a total defect volume of a software development project;

and

calculate the benefit for preventing the injection of defects, wherein;

for discovered defects, the benefit for preventing the injection of defects is the sum of a testing cost and a fix cost; and

for escaped defects, the benefit for preventing the injection of defects is determined based on a business case.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein for determining the benefit for reducing the cycle time the data processing tool is operable to:

determine a defect volume shifting from a source activity to an optimally-timed discovery; and

calculate the benefit for reducing the cycle time the processing as the defect volume shifting from the source activity to the optimally-timed discovery divided by a test efficiency.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein for determining the benefit of reducing invalid defects, the data processing tool is operable to:

calculate a total reduced invalid defect volume as a product of a total defect volume and a difference between a current invalid rate and an improved valid rate; and

calculate the benefit of reducing invalid defects as a product of the total reduced invalid defect volume, an average fix cost for defects in different activities and an adjustment percentage.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein for determining the benefit for reducing production defects, the data processing tool is operable to:

determine a reduced production defect volume as a difference between potential production defects and a production defect rate after DAS actions; and

calculate the benefit for reducing production defects as a product of an average fix cost for defects in different activities and the reduced production defect volume.

22. A computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having readable program code embodied in the storage medium, the computer program product includes at least one component operable to:

receive data including defect analysis defect analysis starter (DAS)/defect reduction method (DRM) defect analysis data of a software development project of an organization;

process the data;

determine one or more business metrics for the organization based on the data including 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; and

generate at least one report based on the one or more business metrics.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein:

the data further comprises one or more organization input,

the determining the one or more business metrics is additionally based on the one or more organization inputs, and

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.

24. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein:

the data further comprises one or more other inputs,

the determining the one or more business metrics is additionally based on the one or more other inputs, and

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.

25. A computer system for classifying automated code inspection services defect output for defect analysis, the system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

first program instructions to receive data including defect analysis starter (DAS)/defect reduction method (DRM) defect analysis data of a software development project of an organization;

second program instructions to process the data to determine one or more business metrics of the organization based on the data including 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; and

third program instructions to generate at least one report based on the one or more business metrics,

wherein the first, second and third program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory.