Overview
The Build Health metric measures the intervals (in units of time) that you have a failed build, and the
intervals (in units of time) that you have a clean build. Iterative development involves incrementally building working
software. As a result, the build should not stay failed for long, especially at the end of the iteration.
An important piece of information to capture along with this metric is the number of total tests that are used to test
the build.
Measurement Method
Number of tests = total number of tests in a test suite at a given time
Clean build range = interval of time that the build remains clean
Failed build Range = interval of time that the build remains failed
Build Health is captured in IBM® Rational® Team Concert®.
Measurement Analysis
A good way to monitor iteration Build Health over time is to plot the chart. The following figure shows
an example of a Build Health chart.
The green area shows the time when the health stays clean, whereas the red area shows the time when the build
failed. Watch for long periods of failed builds, which could indicate problems resolving compilation or test
failures. A long period of failure indicates that there may be serious problems in need of attention.
|