Software Quality Engineering
Lecture No. 7
Summary of the previous lecture
QA to SQE
Key SQE Activities
SQE in Software Process
SQE and QIP (quality improvement paradigm)
Last Lecture of Part- 1:
Overview and Basics
Outlines
More on:
Quality concepts
Quality control
Cost of Quality
Statistical Quality Assurance
The SQA Plan
Objectives
To further understand the concept of quality in the life cycle of a software
To be able to distinguish between quality control, quality concept and cost of quality.
Quality Concepts
Software quality assurance is an umbrella activity that is applied throughout the software
process.
SQA encompasses:
a quality management approach
effective software engineering technology
formal technical reviews
a multi-tiered testing strategy
document change control
software development standard and its control procedure
measurement and reporting mechanism)
Quality Concepts
Quality --> refers to measurable characteristics of a software. These items can be compared
based on a given standard
Two types of quality control:
Quality design -> the characteristics that designers specify for an item. --> includes:
requirements, specifications, and the design of the system.
Quality of conformance -> the degree to which the design specification are followed. It
focuses on implementation based on the design.
Quality Control
What is quality control -- the series of inspections, reviews, and test used throughout the
develop cycle of a software product
Quality control includes a feedback loop to the process.
Objective ---> minimize the produced defects, increase the product quality. Implementation
approaches:
Fully automated
Entirely manual
Combination of automated tools and human interactions
Quality Control
Key concept of quality control:
o compare the work products with the specified and measurable standards
Quality assurance consists of:
- the auditing and reporting function of management
Goal --> provide management with the necessary data about product quality. --> gain the
insight and confidence of product quality
Cost of Quality
Cost of quality --> includes all costs incurred in the pursuit of quality or perform quality related
work
Quality cost includes:
Prevention cost:
Appraisal cost
Failure Cost
Cost of Quality
prevention cost:
quality planning
formal technical reviews
testing equipment
training
appraisal cost:
in-process and inter-process inspection
equipment calibration and maintenance
testing
failure cost:
internal failure cost:
Repair, and failure mode analysis, external failure cost: complaint resolution, product
return and replacement, help line support , warranty work
Software Quality Assurance
Three import points for quality measurement:
Use requirements as the foundation
Use specified standards as the criteria
Considering implicit requirements
Software Quality Assurance Group
Who is involved in quality assurance activities?
Software engineers, project managers, customers, sale people, SQA group
Engineers involved the quality assurance work do following:
apply technical methods and measures
conduct formal technical review
perform well-planned software testing
Causes of Errors
Causes of errors:
incomplete or erroneous specification (IES)
misinterpretation of customer communication (MCC)
intentional deviation from specification (IDS)
violation of programming standards (VPS)
error in data representation (EDR)
inconsistent module interface (IMI)
error in design logic (EDL)
incomplete or erroneous testing (IET)
inaccurate or incomplete documentation (IID)
error in programming language translation of design (PLT)
ambiguous or inconsistent human-computer interface (HCI)
miscellaneous (MIS)
The SQA Plan
The SQA plan provides a road map for instituting software quality assurance.
Basic items:
purpose of plan and its scope
management : organization structure, SQA tasks, their placement in the process - roles
and responsibilities related to product quality
documentation: Project documents, model, technical documents, user document -
standards, practices, and conventions
reviews and audits; test - test plan and procedure
problem reporting, and correction actions
tools; code control; media control; supplier control
records collection, maintenance, and retention
training; risk management
Summary of Today’s Lecture
In today’s lecture, we explored quality and other related terminologies for SQE and SQA.
We explored different types of Costs, errors and constraints associated with SQE
Overview of Next lecture
We will move to the second part of the course. Here we will discuss :
Different Software Testing Techniques. Specification Based Testing Techniques, Black-
box and Grey-Box Testing, Other Comprehensive Software Testing techniques for
SDLC.
The End
