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Published Jan 18, 2024

SE Radio 599: Jason C. McDonald on Quantified Tasks

Jason C. McDonald examines the transformative potential of quantified tasks in software development, offering a solution to the limitations of traditional estimation methods. This approach promises enhanced accuracy in project planning, improved stability and bug tracking, and delivers consistent metrics for assessing and allocating resources effectively.
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  • Stability Metrics

    Stability metrics in software development are crucial for assessing the reliability of a codebase. explains that these metrics, when used with quantified tasks, can reveal the effectiveness of quality control processes. He describes a system where bugs are tracked through their lifecycle, from planning to production, to calculate a volatility score.

    If you catch a bug at the same phase it originates, you're great. You have zero volatility because bugs are always going to show up. That means your quality control is flawless, or at least darn near close.

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    This score helps identify whether quality control gates are failing and the severity of the bugs that manifest, providing a comprehensive view of software stability 1.

       

    Bug Detection

    Quantified tasks offer a novel approach to bug detection by highlighting inefficiencies in quality control. notes that the time a bug remains undetected can indicate the failure of quality control gates throughout the software development lifecycle. By recording the origin and detection points of bugs, developers can pinpoint which gates failed.

    If you have a bug that appears in design and makes it to production, what that means is that your requirements review failed, your static analysis tools did not catch it, your testing didn't catch it, your linters didn't catch it, your CI failed to catch it, your manual review failed to catch it, and now it landed in user's lap.

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    This method provides a clear metric for evaluating the stability of a project and the effectiveness of its quality control measures 2.

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