Quality Characteristics and Matrics

As part of Technical Test Analyst course, we study Quality attributes more in depth. This course expects a Technical Test analyst to be familiar with all the quality characteristic listed below also this course demands individual to know and be able to distinguish between responsibilities of Test Analyst and Technical Test Analyst.

Table below gives an overview of responsibilities of TA and TTA according to ISO-9126 Standard.

Characteristic	Sub characteristic	TA	TTA
Functionality	Accuracy, Suitability, Interoperability, Compliance	X
	Security		X
Reliability	Maturity, Fault-Tolerance, Recoverability, Compliance		X
Usability	Understandability, Learnability, Operability, Attractiveness, Compliance	X
Efficiency	Performance(Time Behavior), Resource Utilization, Compliance		X
Maintainability	Analyzability, Changeability, Stability, Testability, Compliance		X
Portability	Adaptability,  Install ability, Co-existence, Replace ability, Compliance		X

As you all know, Non functional testing is all about testing the attributes of a component/system that do not relate to functionality. This type of testing is related to how the product works and not what it does, most often measured on a scale and does not have a simple pass/fail result.

ISO 9126 software quality attributes and metrics are summarized in below table:

Characteristic	Sub characteristic	Internal Metrics/Static Analysis	External Metrics/Dynamic Analysis
Functionality	Security	Access Auditability, Access Controllability, Data Corruption Prevention, Data Encryption	Access Auditability, Access Controllability, Data Corruption Prevention
Reliability	Maturity	Fault Detection, Fault Removal, Test Adequacy	Estimated Latent Fault density, Failure density against test cases, Failure resolution, Fault density, Fault removal, Mean time between failure ( MTBF), Test Coverage, Test Maturity
	Fault Tolerance	Failure avoidance, Incorrect operation avoidance	Breakdown avoidance, Failure Avoidance, Incorrect operation avoidance
	Recoverability	Restorability, Restoration effectiveness	Availability, Mean down time, Mean recovery time, Restart ability, Restorability, Restore effectiveness
Efficiency	Time Behavior / Performance	Response time, Throughput time, Turnaround time	Response time, Mean time to response, Worst case response time, Throughput, Mean amount of throughput, Worst case throughput ratio, Turnaround time, Mean time for turnaround, Waiting time
	Resource Utilization	I/O utilization, I/O utilization message density, Memory utilization, Memory utilization message density, Transmission utilization	I/O Utilization, I/O related errors, Mean I/O fulfillment ratio, User waiting time of I/O devices utilization, Maximum memory utilization, Mean occurrence of memory error, Ratio of memory error/time, Maximum transmission utilization, Mean occurrence of transmission error, Mean of transmission error per time, Transmission capacity utilization
Maintainability	Analyzability	Activity recording, Readiness of diagnostic function	Audit trail capability, Diagnostic function support, Failure analysis capability, Failure analysis efficiency, Status monitoring capability
	Changeability	Change record ability	Change cycle efficiency, Change implementation elapse time, Modification complexity, Software change control capability
	Stability	Change impact, Modification impact localization	Change success ration, Modification impact localization
	Testability	Completeness of built in test function, Autonomy of testability, Test progress observability	Availability of built-in test function, Re- test efficiency, Test restart ability
Portability	Adaptability	Adaptability of Data structures, Hardware environmental adaptability, Organizational environment adaptability, System software environment adaptability, Porting user friendliness	Adaptability of Data structures, Hardware environmental adaptability, Organizational environment adaptability, System software environment adaptability, Porting user friendliness
	Replace ability	Continued use of data, Function inclusiveness	Continued use of data, Function inclusiveness, User support functional consistency
	Install ability	Ease of set-up retry, Install effort, Install Flexibility	Ease of installation, Ease of set-up retry
	Co-existence	Available co-existence, replace ability, Continued use of data, Function inclusiveness	Available co-existence