The Gap Between DevTest and the Business

Copyright © 2016 Parasoft 1

28.04.2016

The Gap Between Business Risks and Software:

How Teams Measure Non-functional Requirements


Acceleration of the software

development lifecycle

Innovative software that bonds customers to its products and services

Every business demands:

Speed Quality

Speed and quality are no longer tradeoffs: modern organizations must have both

Software Development Lifecycle Trends


Speed and Quality: What Does That Mean?

NFRs

We must understand the business risk of a release candidate

Different parts of the organization think about speed and quality differently

Business Person Developer Tester

I’m not donetesting yet!

Are we done yet?

Is the user story complete?


What Is a Non-functional Requirement (NFR)?

NFR Examples

NFRs describe how the overall system should behave

Application resiliency

Accessibility

Availability

Reliability

Testability

Regulatory compliance


Parasoft Study Explored the Evolution of Quality across Dev Methodology

To explore the impact of the accelerated SDLC, Parasoft conducted a survey asking software developers about functional and non-functional requirements

of Waterfall teams who do so…compared with 59%

Only 38% of Agile-ish and Agile teams are monitoring NFRs…

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Agile-Ish

Agile

Iterative

Hybrid

Waterfall

“Yes, my team monitors compliance to non-functional requirements (NFRs)”


Is Agile Compromising Quality in Pursuit of Speed?

Agile’s quick iterative approach focuses test teams on bottom up user stories

Testers focus on new user stories

Non-functional requirements are deprioritized

* The Business Risks of the Release Pipeline Survey Results: How Teams Measure Non-Functional Requirements, 2016; commissioned by Parasoft

The Result


Study Findings – INVERSE Correlation Between SDLC Pace and NFR Measurement

Inverse correlation between Agile methodologies and the likelihood that teams will measure NFR compliance

Agile’s speed leaves little time for testing NFRs

Agile

Sprint 1

Sprint 2

Sprint 3

Waterfall’s slower pace leaves more time for testing NFRs

Waterfall

Develop

Discover

Design

Test


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

!


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 mitigated—but neglected NFRs can expose the company to: Bumpy user experience Erratic system behavior Standards and regulatory

compliance risk

Software quality


Closing the Gap Between the Business and the Dev Team

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

Better Software Quality


Recommendations for Quality @ Speed

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

To rapidly assess the risks of releasing applications:

Security Availability

Compliance

Quality

Reliability


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


28.04.2016

Download Report

www.parasoft.com

To learn more

https://alm.parasoft.com/nonfunctional-requirements-report

Technology

The Gap Between DevTest and the Business