Testing-related Discussions | Re: How to communicate the value of testing

I wanted to point out Lesson 201 from Lessons Learned in Software Testing which suggest the use of a balanced scorecard to report status and results of testing.

The lesson is fairly long so I'm going to paraphrase the relevant parts.

Quote:

A metric considered in isolation, is prone to damaging side effects, but a well balanced scorecard might be a valid measure of the testing progress. Here are some dimensions to consider:

• How much of the product has been tested?
• How much of the planned testing has been done?
• How many problems have been found and how many of those are still outstanding? (bug list? )
• How much confidence do we have in the quality of the testing?
• How much testing work is being blocked?

The best status reports we have seen use indicators of each of these types.

This is just a partial list of course, but it makes the point.

This collection of data not only gives insight into the status and results of testing, but also provides a "pattern of information [that] can be represented simply enough to guide decision-making" which as we are debating here, may be the the true value and purpose of testing.

---