Chapter 4 Components of the Software Quality Assurance System

Classes of SQA System Components Pre-project components Software project life cycle components Infrastructure components for error avoidance and improvements Management SQA components SQA standards, system certification and assessment components Organizing for SQA – the human components

The Software Quality temple Project Development plan and Quality Plan Ch.6 Pre-project SQA components Project Life Cycle SQA components Formal Design Reviews Sec. 8.2 Experts Opinion Sec. 8.5 Peer Reviews Sec. 8.3 SQA of External Participants Ch 12 Software Maintenance Ch. 11 Software Testing Chs. 9-10 Quality Infrastructure components Procedures Ch. 14 Supporting Devices Ch. 15 Training Instruction Ch. 16 Preventive Actions Ch.17 Configuration Management Ch. 18 Document- ation Control Ch. 19 Quality Management Progress Ch. 20 Software Quality Metrics Ch. 21 Costs Ch. 22 Standards Ch. 23 Process Ch.24 Organizational Base – Human components Management - Ch. 25 SQA Unit - Sec. 26.1 SQA Committees – Sec. 26.2 SQA Trustees – Sec. 26.2 SQA Forums – Sec 26.4 Contract review Ch.5

Pre-project components These components assure: The project commitments have been effectively defined considering the resources requires, the schedule and budget The development and quality plans have been correctly determined These components include: Contract Review Contract review activities must include a detailed examination of the project proposal draft and the contract draft Development and quality plans After singing the contracts, project plan is prepared and its integrated quality assurance activities (the quality plan) are also prepared

Software project life cycle components The development life cycle is composed of two stages: Development life cycle stage Operation-maintenance stage SQA components at this stage include: Reviews The design phase of development process produces different documents that needs review: design reports, SW test documents, installation plans, manuals…etc. Reviews can be either Formal design reviews: to formally get professional doc. Approval Peer reviews: peer review of short doc., chapter, or reports. Expert opinions Expert opinions support quality assessment efforts by introducing additional external capabilities into the organization’s in-house development process. (why we may need such experts?)

2. Software project life cycle components - Continued Software testing It is a formal process carried out by specialized testing team in which a software unit, several integrated SW units or an entire SW package are examined by running the programs on a computer. Testing can be classified as: Black Box Testing (functionality test) White Box Testing (Structural test) Software maintenance

2. Software project life cycle components - Continued Assurance of the quality of the external parts Subcontractors and customers frequently join the directly contracted developers (the suppliers) in carrying out software development projects. The larger and more complex the project, the greater the possibility that external participants will be required. (why we may need to subcontract part or all of the project?) Most of the SQA controls applied to external participants are defined in the contracts signed between the relevant parties.

3. Management SQA Components Managerial SQA components support the managerial control of software development projects and maintenance services. Control components include: Project progress control Software quality metrics Software quality costs.

3. Management SQA Components - continued Project progress control To detect the appearance of any situation that may make difference from the projects plans and maintenance performance. Project control activities include: Resource usage, Schedules, Risk management and Budget Software quality metrics measurement is an effective tool for the support of control activities and the initiation of process improvements.

3. Management SQA Components - continued Software quality costs Management is especially interested in the total sum of the quality costs. Quality cost analysis can help in identifying those teams whose ineffective quality assurance efforts result in higher than average quality cost. The results can then be used to help the teams improve

4. Infrastructure components for error avoidance and improvement Goal of infrastructure are the avoidance of software faults or at least lowering faults rates as well as improving the productivity SQA infrastructure components include: Procedures and work instructions Procedures are planned to be generally applicable and to serve the entire organization.

4. Infrastructure components for error avoidance and improvement Staff training, retraining and certification Preventive and corrective actions Implementation of changes that prevent similar failures in the future. Correction of similar faults found in among the activities performed by other teams. Implementing proven successful methodologies to enhance the probability of repeat successes. The sources of these data are design review reports, software test reports, and customers’ complaints.

4. Infrastructure components for error avoidance and improvement Configuration management Configuration management deals with modifying software to create new versions and releases by introducing procedures to control the change process. Documentation control

5. SQA standards, system certification and assessment components Objectives: Utilization of international professional knowledge Objective professional evaluation and measurement of the organization’s SQA achievement The standards available may be classified into two sub-classes: Quality management standards and Project process standards.

5. SQA standards, system certification and assessment components Quality management standards These standards focus on what is required and leave the decision about how to achieve it to the organization. The application of a managerial quality system provides a fairly objective assessment of the organization’s achievements. Organizations that comply with quality achievement requirements can then seek SQA certification. Examples of this type of standard are: CMMI ISO 9001, 9000-3

5. SQA standards, system certification and assessment components Project process standards Project process standards are professional standards that provide practical guidelines (dealing with the question of “how”) for the development team. Well-known examples of this type of standards are: ISO 12207 ISO 1012

Tight and loose customer-supplier relationship Software projects developed by software houses for to the use of other companies are usually known as external projects or outside-contracted projects . Usually characterized by strong/tight customer-supplier relationship Software projects developed by one unit of an organization to another unit in the same organization is usually known as internal project or in-house projects (the majority of projects). Usually characterized by weak/loose customer-supplier relationship

Types of Internal Projects Administrative or operative software to be applied internally, such as Sales systems, Financial systems, HR systems and management systems Software packages originally intended to be sold to the public as packages, such as computer games, educational software, word processors and sales packages Common to all these project types is the fact that no external body contributes as client in their development.

Thank you…

Quiz 1 Q1) Briefly describe the Objectives of using SQA standards and certifications. Q2) Discuss briefly the Management SQA Components.