A software metric is a measure of some property of a piece of software or its specifications.

A metric is a quantitative measure of the degree to which a system, system component, or process possesses a given attribute.
A quality metric is a quantitative measurement of the degree to which an item possesses a given quality attribute.

Generating Test Metrics are the most important responsibility of the Software Test Lead or Manager.


Metrics allow for deeper understanding of the performance of the application and its behaviour. The fine tuning of the application can be enhanced only with metrics. In a typical QA process, there are many metrics which provide information.

The following can be regarded as the fundamental metric:
Functional or Test Coverage Metrics.
Software Release Metrics.
Software Maturity Metrics.
Reliability Metrics.

– Mean Time To First Failure (MTTFF).
– Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF).
– Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).

Must Read – 
Guide to Useful Software Test Metrics
Software Test Metrics – Key metrics and measures for use within the test function [by – Mark Crowther].

References –

  • www.ge-russell.com
  • http://searchwarp.com/swa334239.htm