Defect Density Definition, Elaboration, Formula, and Uses:
DEFINITION
Defect Density is the number of confirmed defects detected in software/component during a defined period of development/operation divided by the size of the software/component.
ELABORATION
The ‘defects’ are:
- confirmed and agreed upon (not just reported).
- Dropped defects are not counted.
The period might be for one of the following:
- for a duration (say, the first month, the quarter, or the year).
- for each phase of the software life cycle.
- for the whole of the software life cycle.
The size is measured in one of the following:
- Function Points (FP)
- Source Lines of Code
DEFECT DENSITY FORMULA
USES
- For comparing the relative number of defects in various software components so that high-risk components can be identified and resources focused towards them.
- For comparing software/products so that quality of each software/product can be quantified and resources focused towards those with low quality.
[...] There are at least two aspects of quality in software development. The most obvious one is defect density. This is the external view of quality, the one experienced by our end users, and therefore the [...]
wonderful article, it helps nerds, geeks, layman as well to get an overview of software testing fundamentals, defect density is just a title. It is useful for programmers, architects, testers, principals, CIOs, CFOs, CEOs CTOs to determine what they need
Clean and clear description…Thanks for sharing….
Thanks for the useful info.
Just one addition : Calculation of defect density would be better if we calculate on the basis of the FP
Though code churn can be taken as a early indicator for Defect Density.