  Testing of software or software-based systems and services is considered as
one of the most effort-consuming activities in the lifecycle. This applies
especially to those domains where highly iterative development and continuous
integration cannot be applied. Several approaches have been proposed to use
measurement as a means to improve test effectiveness and efficiency. Most of
them rely on using product data, historical data, or in-process data that is
not related to quality assurance ac- tivities. Very few approaches use data
from early quality assurance activities such as inspection data in order to
focus testing activities and thereby reduce test effort. This article gives an
overview of potential benefits of using data from early defect detection
activities, potentially in addition to other data, in order to focus testing
activities. In addition, the article sketches an integrated inspection and
testing process and its evaluation in the context of two case studies. Taking
the study limitations into account, the results show an overall reduction of
testing effort by up to 34%, which mirrors an efficiency improvement of up to
about 50% for testing.
