Metrics that Matter

I'm on a plane returning from STAR West (testing conference - I'm offline and too lazy to look up the URL).  My talk went well - in fact, better than I anticipated.  The talk was on the last day of the conference, so I didn't expect much of a turnout, but there were at least 150 people there, and I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was closer to 200.  I can't quite put my figure on why I feel this way, but it was probably the most fun I've ever had giving a talk.  I'm not sure if it's because I've been doing a lot more speaking lately (in the classroom at least), or if it was because a week ago I was completely unprepared to present (that's a whole other story!).

 

The title of my talk, for those wondering what the title of this post means, was: Measurements that Matter: Choosing Effective Test Metrics.  Part of the talk was taken from the short article I did for Better Software magazine, and most of the rest taken from a combination of some of my own experiences, research done by the testing, verification and measurement team at MS Research, and a lot of books and articles I read.

 

I also wrote a paper to accompany the presentation.  I'll post some excerpts here soon.