Product Backlog Rating: An Empirical Study On Measuring Test Quality in Scrum

Abstract. Agile software development methodologies focus on software projects which are behind schedule or highly likely to have a problematic development phase. In the last decade, Agile methods have transformed from cult techniques to mainstream methodologies. Scrum, an Agile soft-ware development method, has been widely adopted due to its adaptive nature. This paper presents a metric that measures the quality of the testing process in a Scrum process. As product quality and process quality cor-relate, improved test quality can ensure high quality products. Gaining experience from eight years of successful Scrum implementation at Soft-warePeople, we describe the Scrum process emphasizing testing process. We propose a metric Product Backlog Rating (PRAT) to assess the test-ing process in Scrum. PRAT considers complexity of the features to be developed in an iteration of Scrum, assess test ratings and offers a nu-merical score of the testing process. This metric is able to provide a comprehensive overview of the testing process over the development cy-cle of a product. Finally, we present a case study which shows how the metric is used at SoftwarePeople