COMP2002 Quality Lecturecopyright DMU 2001 COMP2002 Software Quality Assurance

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 What is Software Quality Assurance? RA planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the software conforms to established technical requirements(ANSI/IEEE 1981) RA planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the software conforms to a given specification (Manns & Coleman) RMeans different things to different people

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Why do you need SQA? R desire to produce a good product R potential legal liability R user demand for QA R cost effective R marketing value

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Achieving Quality R Build quality into the software - it can’t be added once the software has been developed. R Continually evaluate during development R Evaluation must be planned and documented

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Software Quality Assurance Plan RQuality of evolving software evaluated during development RFeedback of evaluation results into software development process RANSI/IEEE Standard for Software Quality Assurance Plans

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 ANSI/IEEE SQA Plan Contents 1. purpose 5. standards, practices conventions 2. reference documents 3. management 4. documentation 6. reviews & audits 7. configuration management 8. problem reporting & corrective action 13.record collection maintenance & retention 12. supplier control 11. media control 10. code control 9.tools,techniques & methodologies

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Constructive Quality Assurance Measures RApplication of technical, organisational or psychologically oriented measures and aids - technical - organisational - human

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Examples of constructive QA measures RUse processing models with risk estimation for the development process in each phase RUse an estimation technique e.g. COCOMO, function point analysis RUse requirement definition method and tools RCarefully select the programming language RAdequate specialist training and personal development for each project member

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Documentation in QA RSoftware is initially an invisible product of the mind RDocumentation is the material basis of software RNo documentation means software remains in the heads of the developers RWithout adequate, good-quality documentation, a software product is without value and therefore useless

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Programming languages and their influence on quality Concepts and features of languages to promote the creation of good quality software Ra module concept - clear partitioning of module interfaces and module body Rseparate compilation - to show interface errors at compilation time Rinformation hiding and abstract data types - promotes OO development and increase re-use of code modules Rstructured control flow - clear, readable, testable code Rmeaningful names for labeling data and program elements

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Software tools and QA Rfull screen, multi-document editors Ranalysis and design tools Rprogramming environments & generators Rstrategic information system planning tools Rtest tools Rmaintenance tools Rproject management tools Rquality assurance tools

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Configuration management BS8488:1984 Definition The discipline of identifying the components of a continuously evolving system (taking into account relevant system interfaces) for the purposes of controlling changes to these components and maintaining integrity and traceability throughout the system lifecycle.

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Configuration management RConfiguration identification - identify and define items of a configuration - determine individual configurations - determine configuration structure RConfiguration control - input change requests into development process - control the processing of changes - trace all updates to their documented closure

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Configuration management RConfiguration audit - guarantee consistency and completeness of reference configuration after changes - guarantee user requirements are still met after changes - guarantee that product and documentation tally RConfiguration status accounting - record and administer important information about configuration items - make information available about stored configuration items and their relationships

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Aids and tools for Configuration Management Rconfiguration management plan (CMP) Rproject documentation system Rproject library Rtools for new configurations of software systems Rtools for version control and administration

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 Summary Introduction to: R Quality Assurance R How to achieve quality R Software QA plans R Quality Assurance Measures R Configuration Management

MK COMP2002 Quality LectureCopyright DMU 2001 References Project Management for Information Systems, Yeates & Cadle Software Engineering Economics, BW Boehm (Prentice-Hall) Controlling Software Projects, T De Marco (Prentice-Hall) Quality is Free, PB Cosby (McGraw-Hill) Software Quality Assurance & Management, MJ Evans & JJ Marcinak (Wiley-Interscience) Design and Code Inspections to Reduce Errors in Program Development, M Fagan in IBM Systems Journal No3, 1976