Nowadays, many companies across the globe go for outsourcing their software development projects. Why? Simply because outsourcing gives flexibility and cost-efficiency they can find in no other software development model.
At the same time, however, when you go for outsourcing it’s important to keep an eye on software development metrics. Otherwise, the project may end up elevating cost and decreasing output quality after all.
So what are the most important KPI metrics in outsourcing software development that should never be neglected? Let’s go through them below.
Top 13 Software Development Metrics to Track Your Outsourced Project Progress
Lead Time
Lead time shows how long it usually takes for your organization to turn a draft into a software product. When you want to become more responsive to customers, keeping lead time as low as possible is an option.
Active Days
Active days software development metrics are used to measure how long it takes for your developers to deliver code to the project (not taking into account things like planning or administrative tasks). Active days are commonly used to spot hidden costs, for example, the costs of interruptions.
Production
These software development metrics show the amount of work done, effectively measuring the productivity of offshore development teams. Production metrics will be especially important for those managers who need to speed up their average pace of software development.
Assignment
The scope of assignment shows the code (the amount of code, to be more precise) that a software developer can maintain throughout the year. This metric is generally used to showcase how many software engineers you need to support a software project. Similarly, the scope of assignment can be used to compare teams and their performance.
Efficiency
This metric measures the amount of efficient code delivered by a software developer. Pay attention to a code churn, a measure showing the rate of the code evolution. Most commonly, a code churn of low levels will indicate that a produced code must be highly efficient.
Impact
The impact shows the impact of a code change within the framework of the whole project. Most commonly, a modification in code affecting multiple files will cause more serious disruptions than the update that deals with a single file.
MTBF/MTTR
The MTBF metric is the mean time between system breakdowns, it stands for the average time it takes to fix and recover from a system failure. The MTBF metric is usually calculated from the time you are first notified of the failure. The MTBF and MTTR metrics are used to give a description of software behavior in the development environment. The MTBF and MTTR metrics are also helpful when it comes to measuring the success in recovering and storing data.
Security
The security metrics are generally referred to as the quality metrics of the software. The security metrics should be tracked throughout the whole lifecycle of development. By doing so, you can assure that your project pays sufficient attention to potential threats and security issues.
Endpoint Incidents
This metric reflects the number of hardware (devices) that might have been exposed to the virus during a certain period of time.
Errors Per FP (Defects Per FP)
The errors per FP metric shows the overall quality of the information system. It’s commonly used by software development teams to minimize misunderstandings, in line with implementing new control tactics.
Sprint Burndown
This metric is intended to qualify the speed of work completion, in line with giving a measure to work remaining to be done.
Open Pull Requests
The open pull requests metric indicates the number of requests that were not addressed, thus being left without attention. This metric also shows the efficiency of the team working on the task collaboratively.
In fact, pull requests are request queries shared between team members to exchange ideas and detect potential bottlenecks. Remaining open pull requests usually drive idle time and result in delays or disruptions in the working schedule.
By keeping an eye on open pull requests, the business executives can spot the true bottlenecks, in line with eliminating negative factors on time, driving more balanced resource allocation, controlling the speed of delivery, and sticking to quality requirements.
Throughput
This metric is intended to showcase the whole work output and commonly covers the number of tasks, epics, features, corrected errors and bugs, as well as the ready (written or tested) pieces of code that are ready for production.
How Can Software Development Metrics & KPIs Improve Your Bottom-Line Results?
Knowing what software development KPI metrics are, now let’s see how to improve your project management. By using software development KPIs, project managers and shareholders can:
- Go for more effective project management and planning
- Set the right priorities for every project
- Spot bottlenecks and identify breaches on time.
Effective Project Management And Planning
When used in the right way, software development metrics can help you easily identify the current progress of your project. Focusing on the data about the current team’s performance makes it possible to provide accurate project estimates.
Moreover, accurate figures of software development speed and efficiency help the project manager to easily address overtime, stick to optimal workload levels, track the overall progress, and effectively communicate any arising issues. Ultimately, this helps to elevate performance and qualitatively improve team collaboration and performance.
Accurate Work Prioritization
Software development performance metrics are the core element of accurate work prioritization. By using KPI metrics for all-around analysis, it’s much easier to understand if you need to remake the sequence of tasks when drafting the project or not.
For an instance, insufficient customer satisfaction driven by low-quality software updates could be a result of insufficient regression testing. This might as well be a signal that your team has an excessive focus on releasing new features rather than their quality.
Bottlenecks and Breaches
When it comes to identifying problems, the sooner it is done the better, the easier, and less pricey it’s to address them and do the troubleshooting.
Tracking the above-mentioned 13 software development metrics and KPIs in outsourcing makes it possible to provide a 360-degree view of the project performance, making it easier to spot bottlenecks and address issues in a timely manner.
Now What?
Now, when you know all about the most critical software development metrics and KPIs in outsourcing, maybe it’s time to test them on a real dedicated development team? Feel free to contact the Intellectsoft team, we will be more than happy to answer your questions.
Not sure where to get started? Here, at Intellectsoft, we are serving 20+ different industries to empower companies with the most innovative solutions and cutting-edge technologies.
Looking how to improve your performance across any of the above-mentioned KPI metrics? Now you’re finally in the right place! Please feel free to talk to our experts and find out more about the topic and how your business can start benefiting with the Intellectsoft team today!
