Metrics That Define Product Quality & How to Track Them in Jira

Quality is not a vague concept. It is measurable, trackable, and improvable when teams use clear metrics. When you define what “good” looks like and connect those expectations to Jira workflows, quality becomes part of how your team operates, not just something you inspect before shipping.

Below are essential product quality metrics, paired with practical tips on how to track each of them directly in Jira. And because testing is at the heart of quality, you’ll also see where a native test management tool like Appsvio Test Management for Jira helps streamline the process without adding friction.

Defect Density

Defect density measures how many defects appear in relation to the amount of work delivered. It highlights high-risk areas in your product and helps identify where extra reviews, refactoring, or additional testing might be needed.

In Jira, you can track defect density by structuring your work types clearly and tagging bugs with relevant information.

To implement defect density in Jira, consider:

• Using Bug work type consistently to record all defects.
  
  
• Tagging defects with Component, Module, or Feature Area, so you know where issues cluster.
  
  
• Creating filters such as: issuetype = Bug AND created >= startOfMonth()
  
  
• Comparing defects and stories delivered in the same timeframe using dashboard gadgets like Two-Dimensional Statistics.

If you use Appsvio Test Management, defect density becomes even more insightful because defects are automatically linked to test executions and test cases. You can see which test suites discover the most issues and identify hidden risk areas.

Test Coverage (Requirements Coverage)

Test coverage answers the question: Are we testing everything we build? If a feature has no tests connected to it, you rely solely on luck or exploratory testing.

In Jira, coverage is easiest to manage when requirements and tests live in the same environment.

To establish requirements coverage in Jira:

• Write requirements as Epics, Stories, or dedicated Requirement work types.
  
  
• Manage your tests through a Test Case work type (available in Appsvio Test Management).
  
  
• Link test cases to requirements using Jira’s work item linking.
  
  
• Review coverage via:
  
  
  • Test-to-requirement traceability reports,
    
    
  • Filters showing which stories lack test cases,
    
    
  • Dashboards that preview testing completeness.

Appsvio Test Management offers built-in traceability and coverage views. They show which requirements are covered, which tests fail, and where defects originate - making it easier to communicate quality status to product managers and leadership.

Escaped Defects (Production Bugs)

Escaped defects are issues that users discover after release. They are the most expensive defects and often impact customer trust. Tracking them helps reveal gaps in your testing or acceptance criteria.

In Jira, you can track escaped defects by:

• Marking production bugs with an ATM Environment field or label (e.g., prod or staging).
  
  
• Linking Jira tickets to Bugs.
  
  
• Filtering production bugs by timeframe or version:
  
  issuetype = Bug AND "ATM Environment" = Production
AND created >= -30d
  
  
• Monitoring trends on dashboards using Created vs Resolved charts.

With Appsvio Test Management, these escaped defects link back to earlier test cycles, highlighting exactly which scenarios failed to catch the defect earlier.

MTTD and MTTR

Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR) measure responsiveness. They show how quickly your team identifies and fixes problems.

Jira captures timestamps automatically, so the key is defining what each stage means in your workflow and using Jira’s native reporting to measure performance.

Useful Jira steps include:

• Reviewing your workflow statuses to clarify:
  
  
  • When a bug is “detected”
    
    
  • When work starts
    
    
  • When it is resolved
    
    
• Using Control Chart to measure cycle time.
  
  
• Filtering by specific defect groups, like critical production issues or bugs created within the last sprint.
  
  

When test execution happens directly in Jira via Appsvio Test Management, users can easily record the issues during execution and immediately raise defects. This way, they can stay on top of bugs found and quickly communicate with other involved teams.

Defect Removal Efficiency (DRE)

DRE tells you how effective your testing process is before release. It compares the number of defects found before deployment to the total defects found for that release.

In Jira, you can measure DRE by:

• Adding a “Found In Phase” field to bug work type (Unit Testing, System Testing, UAT, Production).
  
  
• Filtering defects by phase and release:
  
  issuetype = Bug AND fixVersion = "2025.10" AND "Found In Phase"
= Production
  
  
• Summarizing the counts on dashboards or exporting them to apply the DRE formula.

With Appsvio Test Management, you get added visibility into how many defects are detected during each structured test run. This helps refine regression plans or improve specific testing phases.

Test Execution Effectiveness

Even with high test coverage, execution patterns matter. A test plan where most tests are unexecuted a week before release exposes clear risk.

In Jira, with a test management layer, you can track execution by:

• Organizing test cases into Test Plans for a feature or release.
  
  
• Running tests through Test Executions, capturing results like Pass, Fail, Blocked, or Not Executed.
  
  
• Monitoring:
  
  
  • Percentage of tests executed,
    
    
  • Pass rate,
    
    
  • Number of failures per area or severity.

Test Execution is a native Jira work item in Appsvio Test Management tool, allowing
to view progress of execution with one glance.

Appsvio Test Management offers clear execution views and progress tracking. Because everything stays within Jira, the data can easily be added to dashboards or shared with stakeholders.

Customer-Visible Quality
(Support Defect Rate + CSAT)

Internal metrics matter, but customers define quality in their own way. Tracking how many defect-related tickets they report and how satisfied they feel with resolutions gives you a direct view of real-world quality.

In Jira Service Management, you can measure this by:

• Categorizing tickets with fields like Work Item Category = Defect.
  
  
• Enabling CSAT surveys.
  
  
• Linking support tickets to Jira Bugs through work item linking.
  
  
• Creating dashboards that show defect ticket volume, key themes, and CSAT trends.
  
  

When connected with testing insights through Appsvio Test Management, this creates a clear story: which customer-reported issues relate to missing tests, weak test scenarios, or unclear requirements.

Bringing It All Together

You don’t need to adopt all metrics at once. Many teams start with defect density, escaped defects, and MTTR because they reveal stability risks early. Once your workflows mature, adding requirements coverage and test execution effectiveness creates a more complete view of testing quality. Finally, incorporating customer-visible metrics closes the feedback loop between product development and user experience.

Jira already provides a strong backbone for managing quality data. A native tool like Appsvio Test Management for Jira extends this foundation by bringing test cases, test runs, and coverage analysis into the same ecosystem. This keeps your processes simple, connected, and transparent.

Clear metrics build strong products. When teams track the right indicators in Jira, they gain not only visibility but also confidence - confidence that each release meets the quality standard your customers expect.