The Gap Between DevTest and the Business

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The Gap Between Business Risks and Software
How Teams Measure Non-functional Requirements
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Software Development Lifecycle Trends
Every business demands

• Acceleration
• of the software
• development lifecycle

Innovative software that bonds customers to its
products and services
Speed
Quality
Speed and quality are no longer tradeoffs modern
organizations must have both
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Speed and Quality What Does That Mean?
Different parts of the organization think about
speed and quality differently
Im not done testing yet!
Are we done yet?
Is the user story complete?
Business Person
Developer
Tester
NFRs
We must understand the business risk of a release
candidate
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What Is a Non-functional Requirement (NFR)?
NFRs describe how the overall system should
behave
Application resiliency Accessibility Availability
Reliability Testability Regulatory compliance
NFR Examples
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Parasoft Study Explored the Evolution of Quality
across Dev Methodology
Only 38 of Agile-ish and Agile teams are
monitoring NFRs
Yes, my team monitors compliance to
non-functional requirements (NFRs)
To explore the impact of the accelerated SDLC,
Parasoft conducted a survey asking software
developers about functional and non-functional
requirements
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Is Agile Compromising Quality in Pursuit of Speed?
Agiles quick iterative approach focuses test
teams on bottom up user stories
The Result
Non-functional requirements are deprioritized
Testers focus on new user stories
The Business Risks of the Release Pipeline
Survey Results How Teams Measure Non-Functional
Requirements, 2016 commissioned by Parasoft
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Study Findings INVERSE Correlation Between
SDLC Pace and NFR Measurement
Agile
Waterfall
Agiles speed leaves little time for testing NFRs
Waterfalls slower pace leaves more time for
testing NFRs
Inverse correlation between Agile methodologies
and the likelihood that teams will measure NFR
compliance
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Measurement of NFRs
Management and business analysts are 7x more
likely to believe that NFRs are measures and
monitored consistently
Developers and testers do not believe that NFRs
are being appropriately defined and measured
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Gap Between the Business and Dev Team
The Business
Dev Team

• Deadline pressures result in ignoring
• Holistic user experience
• Impact of change on the broader system
• NFRs

• Assumes business risks are being mitigatedbut
  neglected NFRs can expose the company to
• Bumpy user experience
• Erratic system behavior
• Standards and regulatory compliance risk

Software quality
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Closing the Gap Between the Business and the Dev
Team

• Jointly defining business risks at projects
  onset
• Understanding KPIs and acceptance thresholds
• Automatically measuring and monitoring NFRs
• Reviewing and continuously improving mitigation
  of business risk

Better Software Quality
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Recommendations for Quality _at_ Speed
To rapidly assess the risks of releasing
applications

• Ensure all parties understand risks and tradeoffs
• Continuously train on the impact of failure
• Establish quality gates
• Implement escalation processes
• Adopt a continuous improvement mindset

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Teams Must Collaborate to Mitigate Risk

• Business risks drive quality activities
• Teams collaborate on the definition of risk
• All team members are trained on risks and
  mitigation tasks
• Baseline and threshold criteria are measured and
  monitored
• DevTest team activities are prioritized per risk
  definition

Policy
NFRs
KPIs and Acceptance Thresholds
Automated Measurement and Monitoring
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To learn more
Download Report
www.parasoft.com