Must have Test Automation metrics · QA Automation Accelerator

Must have Test Automation metrics

Part of every Engineering Team's job is to communicate their progress and impact to upper management using clear, meaningful metrics. This applies to all engineering department, including QA Automation and SDETs.

Tracking the right metrics helps teams identify bottlenecks, make informed decisions and show concrete results.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗤𝗔 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀

Stakeholders need the answers to questions like:

How much of the application is covered by tests?
How fast can releases be validated?
Are bugs being caught before production?
Is automation saving time?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟱 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗤𝗔 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀

📊 𝟭. 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲

The percentage of user scenarios and critical features covered by test cases. High coverage demonstrates confidence that releases won't break for customers.

➤ Target 80%+ coverage of critical user flows, with clear documentation of what's tested and what's intentionally excluded.

🤖 𝟮. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲

The ratio of manual test cases converted to automated tests. This shows testing efficiency improvements and ROI. Every automated test saves time on every future release.

➤ Target at least 60% to 70% for regression tests, focusing on repetitive and stable scenarios.

⚡ 𝟯. 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲

How long it takes to run your automated test suite. Faster tests mean faster feedback to developers. A 6 hour test suite delays every code change by 6 hours. A 15 minute suite enables rapid iteration.

➤ Keep full regression under ~30 minutes and smoke tests under ~10 minutes. Use parallel runs if needed.

⏱️ 𝟰. 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲

Time spent on different testing activities like test creation, execution, bug verification, and regression testing. This reveals bottlenecks and helps justify automation investments. If 80% of effort goes to manual regression instead of exploratory testing, that's a clear process problem.

✅ 𝟱. 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀

The percentage of passing tests and the number of new bugs per deployment. Pass rate shows application stability. Bug trends reveal whether development practices are improving or degrading.

➤ Target 95%+ pass rate on stable builds with declining or stable bug counts over time.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁

Tracking metrics is only half the battle. You need to communicate them effectively.

✅ 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗗𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱

Use tools like Grafana or even Google Sheets to visualize trends over time. Make metrics accessible and easy to understand at a glance.

✅ 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀

"We have 500 automated tests" is less compelling than "We increased automation from 200 to 500 tests this quarter, reducing regression time from 20 hours to 2 hours."

✅ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁

Translate technical metrics into business language. "Our 30 minute test suite enables 2x more daily deployments" etc.

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱

❌ Tracking too many metrics

Focus on 5 to 7 key metrics. Too many numbers dilute your message.

❌ Celebrating vanity metrics

"We wrote 1000 tests" means nothing if they're flaky, slow, or don't catch real bugs.

❌ Reporting without context

Always compare against previous periods or targets. "70% automation coverage" only means something if you know it was 40% last quarter.

📌 Tip: Start tracking these metrics today, even in a simple spreadsheet. Three months of trend data will give you powerful insights for process improvements and resource discussions.

𝐏.𝐒. 🚩 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝟑-𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 “𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐐𝐀 → 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓” 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩, 𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐝-𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐒𝐃𝐄𝐓 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬.

Click Here to Start: https://www.skool.com/qa-automation-career-hub/classroom/078530b1

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