2.8 Software quality management  (Page 4/11)

The theory and concepts behind quality improvement, such as building in quality through the prevention and early detection of errors, continuous improvement, and customer focus, are pertinent to software engineering. These concepts are based on the work of experts in quality who have stated that the quality of a product is directly linked to the quality of the process used to create it.

Approaches such as the Total Quality Management (TQM) process of Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) are tools by which quality objectives can be met. Management sponsorship supports process and product evaluations and the resulting findings. Then, an improvement program is developed identifying detailed actions and improvement projects to be addressed in a feasible time frame. Management support implies that each improvement project has enough resources to achieve the goal defined for it. Management sponsorship must be solicited frequently by implementing proactive communication activities. The involvement of work groups, as well as middle-management support and resources allocated at project level.

Software quality management processes

Software quality management (SQM) applies to all perspectives of software processes, products, and resources. It defines processes, process owners, and requirements for those processes, measurements of the process and its outputs, and feedback channels. Software quality management processes consist of many activities. Some may find defects directly, while others indicate where further examination may be valuable. The latter are also referred to as direct-defect-finding activities. Many activities often serve as both.

Planning for software quality involves:

• Defining the required product in terms of its quality characteristics.
• Planning the processes to achieve the required product.

These aspects differ from, for instance, the planning SQM processes themselves, which assess planned quality characteristics versus actual implementation of those plans. The software quality management processes must address how well software products will, or do, satisfy customer and stakeholder requirements, provide value to the customers and other stakeholders, and provide the software quality needed to meet software requirements.

SQM can be used to evaluate the intermediate products as well as the final product.

Some of the specific SQM processes are defined in standard (IEEE12207.0-96):

• Quality assurance process
• Verification process
• Validation process
• Review process
• Audit process

These processes encourage quality and also find possible problems. But they differ somewhat in their emphasis.

SQM processes help ensure better software quality in a given project. They also provide, as a by-product, general information to management, including an indication of the quality of the entire software engineering process. The Software Engineering Process and Software Engineering Management KAs discuss quality programs for the organization developing the software. SQM can provide relevant feedback for these areas.