1. Software Engineering Term Paper
Topic:Software Quality Assurance
Name:Shriram Kaveseri

2. Definition
A software quality assurance is a “planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the item or product conforms to established technical requirements”

3. Contents Introduction Different Phases in SQA Merits of SQA
Demerits of SQA
Conclusion
References

4. Phases in SQA Standards and Procedures
Software Quality Assurance Activities
Software Quality Assurance Relationships to other Assurance Activities
Software Quality Assurance During the Software Acquisition Life Cycle
Techniques and Tools

5. Standards and Procedures
Standards are the established criteria to which the software products are compared
Procedures are the established criteria to which the development and control processes are compared

6. Types of Standards Documentation Standards Design Standards
Code Standards

7. Documentation Standard
Documentation standards provide specific form and content for planning,control,and product documentation and also provides consistency throughout a project.

8. Design Standard
Design standards provide specific form and content of the design product,and also provides rules and method for translating the software requirements into the software design and for representing it in the design documentation

9. Code Standard
Code Standards define legal language structures ,style conventions,rules for data structures and interfaces, and internal code documentation.

10. Software Quality Assurance Activities
Product Evaluation
Process Monitoring

11. Product Evaluation
Product evaluation is an SQA activity that assures certain standards to be followed
Product evaluation also assures that the software product reflects the requirements of the applicable standards as identified in the management plan.

12. Process Monitoring
Process monitoring is an SQA activity that assures that appropriate steps to carry out the process are being followed
The assurance section of management specifies the methods to be used by the SQA process monitoring activity.

13. Role of SQA in various Assurance Activities
Configuration Management Monitoring
Verification and Validation Monitoring
Formal Test Monitoring

14. Configuration Management Monitoring
SQA assures that software configuration monitoring activities are performed in accordance with the CM plans,standards, and procedures.
The various CM activities are:
Baseline Control
Configuration Identification
Configuration Control
Configuration Status
Configuration Authentication

15. Verification and Validation
Verification:”Are we building the product right”
Validation:”Are we building the right product”
SQA assures Verification and Validation activities by monitoring technical reviews,inspections, and walkthroughs

16. Formal Test Monitoring
Testing the software requirements in accordance with test plans.
Test procedures are verifiable
Exact version of the software is being tested
Nonconformances are noted and recorded
Test report are accurate and complete
Regression Testing is conducted
Resolution of all nonconformances takes place in accordance with the delivery

17. SQA during Software Development Life Cycle
Software concept and initiation phase
Software requirements phase
Software architectural design phase
Software detailed design phase
Software implementation phase
Software integration and test phase
Software acceptance and delivery phase
Software sustaining engineering and operation phase

18.   Techniques and Tools
A fundamental SQA technique is the audit which looks at a process or a product in depth,comparing them to established procedures and standards

19. Merits Develops and monitors adherence to project standards.
Perform audits of the process and work product accepts.
Develops and performs the aceptance tests.

20. Conclusion
Techniques for assessing and improving software quality include systematic quality assurance procedures,walkthrough Inspection,testings and formal verification.
In practice, a combination of techniques is required to asses and improve software quality:inspections,walkthroughs, and quality assurance are procedures that can be used throughout the product life cycle.
On a whole Software Quality Assurance is a group of related activities employed throughout the software life cycle to positively influence and quantify the quality of the delivered software.

21. References http://satc.gsfc.nasa.gov/homepage.html
ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/03.reports/pdf/03sr001.pdf

22. Shriram Kaveseri Gopalakrishnan
Thank You
Shriram Kaveseri Gopalakrishnan