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An Activity and Metric Model for Online Controlled Experiments

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (PROFES 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 11271))

Abstract

Accurate prioritization of efforts in product and services development is critical to the success of every company. Online controlled experiments, also known as A/B tests, enable software companies to establish causal relationships between changes in their systems and the movements in the metrics. By experimenting, product development can be directed towards identifying and delivering value. Previous research stresses the need for data-driven development and experimentation. However, the level of granularity in which existing models explain the experimentation process is neither sufficient, in terms of details, nor scalable, in terms of how to increase number and run different types of experiments, in an online setting. Based on a case study of multiple products running online controlled experiments at Microsoft, we provide an experimentation framework composed of two detailed experimentation models focused on two main aspects; the experimentation activities and the experimentation metrics. This work intends to provide guidelines to companies and practitioners on how to set and organize experimentation activities for running trustworthy online controlled experiments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP), funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The authors would like to thank Microsoft’s Analysis and Experimentation team for the opportunity to conduct this study with them.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Hörselgången 11, 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden

    David Issa Mattos & Jan Bosch

  2. Outreach, 1441 North 34th Street, Seattle, WA, 98103, USA

    Pavel Dmitriev

  3. Department of Computer Science and Media Technology, Malmö University, Nordenskiöldsgatan, 211 19, Malmö, Sweden

    Aleksander Fabijan & Helena Holmström Olsson

Authors
  1. David Issa Mattos
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  2. Pavel Dmitriev
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  3. Aleksander Fabijan
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  4. Jan Bosch
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  5. Helena Holmström Olsson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Issa Mattos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Clausthal, Goslar, Germany

    Marco Kuhrmann

  2. Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Kurt Schneider

  3. University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Dietmar Pfahl

  4. Okayama Prefectural University, Okayama, Japan

    Sousuke Amasaki

  5. QAware GmbH, Munich, Germany

    Marcus Ciolkowski

  6. Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Regina Hebig

  7. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Paolo Tell

  8. Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Jil Klünder

  9. Clausthal University of Technology, Goslar, Germany

    Steffen Küpper

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Issa Mattos, D., Dmitriev, P., Fabijan, A., Bosch, J., Holmström Olsson, H. (2018). An Activity and Metric Model for Online Controlled Experiments. In: Kuhrmann, M., et al. Product-Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11271. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03673-7_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03673-7_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03672-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03673-7

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