Software Quality Management

Prof. R. Mall
Dept. of CSE, IIT, Kharagpur

Plan of the Talk

Introduction to Quality Engineering. Quality control and Quality Assurance ISO 9000 SEI CMM Summary
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Introduction
Traditional definition of quality:
Fitness of purpose:
A quality product does exactly what the users want it to do.

Fitness of Purpose
Fitness of purpose for software products:

Satisfaction of the requirements specified in SRS document.

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Fitness of Purpose
A satisfactory definition of quality for many products:
A car, a table fan, a food mixer, microwave oven, etc. Why?

But, not satisfactory for software products.

 Consider a software product:

Functionally correct:
Performs all functions as specified in the SRS document.

Quality for Software Products

But, has an almost unusable user interface.

Cannot be considered as a quality product.

 Consider another example:

Quality for Software Products

A product which does everything that users want. But has an almost incomprehensible and unmaintainable code. Will you call it a quality product?
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Modern View of Quality

Several quality factors are associated with a software product :
Correctness Reliability Efficiency (includes efficiency of resource

utilization)

Portability Usability Reusability Maintainability

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Correctness
A software product is correct:
If different requirements as specified in the SRS document have been correctly implemented. Results are accurate.

Portability
A software product is said to be portable:
If it can be easily made to work
In different operating systems. In different machines, With other software products, etc.
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Reusability
A software product has good reusability:

If different modules of the product can easily be reused to develop new products.
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Usability
A software product has good usability:
If different categories of users (i.e. both expert and novice users) can easily invoke the functions of the product.

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Maintainability
A software product is maintainable:
If errors can be easily corrected as and when they show up, New functions can be easily added to the product, Functionalities of the product can be easily modified.
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Software Quality Management System

Quality management system (or quality system):
Principal methodology used by organizations to ensure that the products have desired quality.

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Quality System
A quality system consists of the following:
Managerial Structure Individual Responsibilities.

Responsibility of the organization as a whole.

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Quality System
Every quality conscious organization has an independent quality department:
Performs several quality system activities. Needs support of top management. Without support at a high level in a company:

Many employees may not take the quality system seriously.

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Quality System Activities

Auditing of projects Development of:
standards, procedures, and guidelines.

Production of reports for the top management:

Review of the quality system itself.

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Summarizing the effectiveness of the quality system in the organization.

Quality System
A good quality system must be well documented.
Without a properly documented quality system,
Application of quality procedures become ad hoc, Results in large variations in the quality of the products delivered.

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Quality System
An undocumented quality system:
Sends clear messages to the staff about the attitude of the organization towards quality assurance.

International standards such as ISO 9000 provide:

Guidance on how to organize a quality system.
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Evolution of Quality Systems

Quality systems have evolved: Prior to World War II:
Over the last six decades.

Accepted way to produce quality products:

Inspect the finished products Eliminate defective products.

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 Since World war II,

Evolution of Quality Systems

Quality systems of organizations have undergone:

Four stages of evolution.

Many advances came from Japanese:

Helped resurrect Japanese economy.

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Evolution of Quality Systems

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Evolution of Quality Systems

Initial product inspection method:
Gave way to quality control (QC).

Quality control:
Not only detect the defective products and eliminate them But also determine the causes behind the defects.
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Quality Control (QC)

Quality control aims at correcting the causes of errors:
Not just rejecting defective products. Statistical quality control (SQC): Quality of the output of the process is inferred using statistical methods. In stead of inspection or testing of all products.
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Quality Control (QC)

The next breakthrough:
Development of quality assurance principles.

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Quality Assurance
Basic premise of modern quality assurance:

If an organization's processes are good and are followed rigorously:

The products are bound to be of good quality.

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Quality Assurance
All modern quality paradigms include:
Guidance for recognizing, defining, analyzing, and improving the production process.

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Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM advocates:
Continuous process improvements through process measurements.

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Business Process Reengineering

BPR:A term related to TQM. Process reengineering goes a step further than quality assurance:
Aims at continuous process improvement.

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Business Process Reengineering

TQM focuses on reengineering of the software process.
Whereas BPR aims at reengineering the way business is carried out in any organization:
Not just software development.
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Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM goes beyond documenting processes
Optimizes them through redesign.

Over the years the quality paradigm has shifted:

From product assurance to process assurance.
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Process Improvement
Implies introducing process changes to improve:
Product quality Reduce costs Accelerate schedules.

Most process improvement work so far has focused on defect reduction.

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Process Attributes
Pr ocess characteristic Under andability st V isibil ity Supportability D escription To w hat extent is the process explicitl y defined and how ea is it t sy o under and t process definition? st he D o the process activ ities culmi nate in clear resul ts so that the progress of the process is exter al ly visible? n To w hat extent can C ASE tools be used to support the process activ ities?

Acce ta ility p b
R eliability

Is the defined process acce ta le to and usable by the enginee p b rs responsibl e for poducing th s ftw are product? r e o
Is t e process designed in such a w ay that process errors are av oided or h trapped b fore they r sult in product errors e e ?

R obustness
M aintanability i R apidity

C an the processcont nue in spite of unexpect d problems? i e

C an the process ev olv e to re lect changing organisatonal re uirements f i q or identified p ocess imp rovements r ? How fast can th process of delivering a syste from a given e m specification be comp leted?

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The Process Improvement Cycle

Measure

Change

Analyse

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Process Improvement Stages

Process measurement
Attributes of the process are measured. Form a baseline for assessing improvements. The process is assessed and bottlenecks and weaknesses are identified. Changes to the process that have been identified during the analysis are introduced.
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Process analysis Process change

Process and Product Quality

A good process is usually required to produce a good product. For manufactured goods, process is the principal quality determinant. For design-based activity, other factors are also involved:
For example, the capabilities of the designers.
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ISO 9000
ISO (international Standards Organization):
a consortium of 63 countries established to formulate and foster standardization.

ISO published its 9000 series of standards in 1987.

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What is ISO 9000 Certification?

ISO 9000 certification:
Serves as a reference for contract between independent parties.

The ISO 9000 standard:

Specifies guidelines for maintaining a quality system.

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What is ISO 9000 Certification?

ISO 9000 specifies:
Guidelines for repeatable and high quality product development. Also addresses organizational aspects
Responsibilities, reporting, procedures, processes, and resources for implementing quality management.
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ISO 9000
A set of guidelines for the production process.
Not directly concerned about the product it self. A series of three standards:

ISO 9001, ISO 9002, and ISO 9003.

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ISO 9000
Based on the premise:
If a proper process is followed for production:

Good quality products are bound to follow.

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ISO 9001
Applies to:
Organizations engaged in design, development, production, and servicing of goods. Applicable to most software development organizations.

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ISO 9002
ISO 9002 applies to:
Organizations who do not design products:
but are only involved in production.

Examples of this category of industries:

Steel or car manufacturing industries Buy the product and plant designs from external sources:

Not applicable to software development organizations.

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only manufacture products.

ISO 9003
ISO 9003 applies to:
Organizations involved only in installation and testing of the products.

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ISO 9000 for Software Industry

ISO 9000 is a generic standard:
Applicable to many industries,
Starting from a steel manufacturing industry to a service rendering company.

Many clauses of ISO 9000 documents:

Use generic terminologies Very difficult to interpret them in the context of software organizations.
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Software vs. Other Industries

Very difficult to interpret many clauses for software industry:

Software development is radically different from development of other products.

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 Software is intangible:

Software vs. Other Industries

Therefore difficult to control.

It is difficult to control anything that we cannot see and feel.

In contrast, in a car manufacturing unit:

We can see a product being developed through stages such as fitting engine, fitting doors, etc. One can accurately tell about the status of the product at any time.

Software project management is an altogether different ball game.

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Software vs. Other Industries

During software development:
The only raw material consumed is data.

For any other product development:

Lot of raw materials consumed
e.g. Steel industry consumes large volumes of iron ore, coal, limestone, etc.

ISO 9000 standards have many clauses corresponding to raw material control .
Not relevant to software organizations.
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Software vs. Other Industries

Radical differences exist between software and other product development:
Difficult to interpret various clauses of the original ISO standard in the context of software industry.

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ISO 9000 Part-3

ISO released a separate document called ISO 9000 part-3 in 1991:
To help interpret the ISO standard for software industry.

At present:
Official guidance is inadequate.
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ISO 9000: 2000

ISO 9001:2000: Design and development procedures are required: The 2000 version sought to make a radical change in thinking:
Combines the three standards 9001, 9002, and 9003 into one.

Only if a company does in fact engage in the creation of new products. By actually highlighting the concept of process management.
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ISO 9000: 2000

Another goal is to improve effectiveness via process performance metrics:
Numerical measurement of the effectiveness of tasks and activities. Continual process improvement and tracking customer satisfaction were made explicit.
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 Several benefits:

Why Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Confidence of customers in an organization increases.

If organization qualified for ISO 9001 certification. This is especially true in the international market.
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Why Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Many international software development contracts insist:
Development organization to have ISO 9000 certification.

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Why Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Requires:
A well-documented software production process to be in place. Contributes to repeatable and higher quality software.

Makes development process:

Focussed, efficient, and costeffective
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Why Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Points out the weakness of an organizations: Sets the basic framework:
Recommends remedial action.

For development of an optimal process and TQM.

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How to Get ISO 9000 Certification?

An organization intending to obtain ISO 9000 certification:
Applies to a ISO 9000 registrar for registration.

ISO 9000 registration process consists of several stages.

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 Application stage: Pre-assessment:

How to Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Applies to a registrar for registration. The registrar makes a rough assessment of the organization.
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How to Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Document review and adequacy audit:
Process and quality-related documents. The registrar reviews the documents. Makes suggestions for improvements.

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How to Get ISO 9000 Certification? Compliance audit: The

registrar checks:
Whether the suggestions made by it during review have been complied.

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How to Get ISO 9000 Certification?

Registration:
The registrar awards ISO 9000 certificate after successful completions of all previous phases.
The registrar continues monitoring the organization periodically.
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Continued surveillance:

ISO 9000 Certification

An ISO certified organization :
Can use the certificate for corporate advertizements. Cannot use the certificate to advertize its products.

An organization using ISO certificate for product advertizements:

Risks withdrawal of the certificate.

ISO 9000 certifies organization's process Not any product of the organization.

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Summary of ISO 9001 Requirements

Management responsibility(4.1):

Management must have an effective quality policy. The responsibility and authority of all those whose work affects quality:
Must be defined and documented.
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Management Responsibility(4.1)
Responsibility of the quality system.
Independent of the development process. Can work in an unbiased manner.

The effectiveness of the quality system:

Must be periodically by audited.
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Quality System (4.2) and Contract Reviews (4.3): A quality system must be maintained and documented. Contract reviews (4.3):

Before entering into a contract, an organization must review the contract

Ensure that it is understood, Organization has the capability for carrying out its obligations.
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Design Control (4.4)

The design process must be properly controlled: A good configuration control system must be in place.
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This includes controlling coding also.

Design Control (4.4)

Design inputs must be verified as adequate. Design must be verified. Design output must be of required quality. Design changes must be controlled.
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Document Control (4.5)

Proper procedures for:
Document approval, issue and removal.

Document changes must be controlled.

Use of some configuration management tools is necessary.

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Purchasing (4.6)
Purchased material, including bought-in software:
Must be checked for conforming to requirements.

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Purchaser Supplied Products (4.7) Material supplied by a purchaser:

For example,
Client-provided software must be properly managed and checked.
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Product Identification (4.8)

The product must be identifiable at all stages of the process.
In software development context this means configuration management.

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Process Control (4.9)

The development must be properly managed. Quality requirements must be identified in a quality plan.

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Inspection and Testing (4.10)

In software terms this requires effective testing i.e., Test records must be maintained.
Unit testing, integration testing and system testing.

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Inspection, Measuring and Test Equipment(4.11)

If integration, measuring, and test equipments are used,

Must be properly maintained and calibrated.

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Control of Nonconforming Product (4.13) In software terms,

Keeping untested or faulty software out of released product,
Or out of other places whether it might cause damage.

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Corrective Action (4.14)

This is both about correcting errors when found:
Investigating why they occurred Improving the process to prevent further occurrences.

If an error reoccurs despite the quality system:

The system needs improvement.
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Handling (4.15) and Quality Audits (4.17):

Handling (4.15) Deals with: Quality Audits (4.17) :

Storage, packing, and delivery of the software product.

Quality system audit must be carried out to ensure its effectiveness.
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Training (4.18)
Training needs must be identified and met. Most items of ISO standard:
Are largely common sense.

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Salient Features of ISO 9001 Requirements: All documents concerned with the development of a software product: Proper plans should be prepared:
Progress against these plans should be monitored.
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Should be properly managed, authorized, and controlled.

 Important documents independently checked and reviewed:

For effectiveness and correctness.

Salient Features of ISO 9001 Requirements

The product should be tested :

Against specification.

Several organizational aspects:

e.g., management reporting of the quality team.
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Shortcomings of ISO 9001 Certification

ISO 9000 requires a production process to be adhered to:
But does not guarantee the process to be of high quality. Does not give any guideline for defining an appropriate process.

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 ISO 9000 certification process:

Not fool-proof No international accredition agency exists. Likely variations in the norms of awarding certificates:

Shortcomings of ISO 9001 Certification cont

Among different accredition agencies and among the registrars.

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Shortcomings of ISO 9001 Certification (3)

Organizations qualifying for ISO 9001 certification:
Tend to downplay domain expertise. Tend to believe that since a good process is in place,
Any engineer is as effective as any other engineer in doing any particular activity relating to software development.
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Shortcomings of ISO 9001 Certification (4)

In manufacturing industry:
Clear link between process quality and product quality. Once a process is calibrated:
Can be run again and again producing quality goods.

Software development is a creative process:

Individual skills and experience is significant.
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Shortcomings of ISO 9001 Certification (5)

Many areas of software development are very specialized: ISO 9001:
Special expertize and experience (domain expertize) required.

Does not automatically lead to continuous process improvement, Does not automatically lead to TQM.
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Shortcomings of ISO 9001 Certification (6)

ISO 9001 addresses mostly management aspects. Techniques specific to software development have been ignored:
Configuration management Reviews Release builds Problem Notification system Intranets

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 Developed by Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of the Carnegie Mellon University, USA:

SEI Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

To assist the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in software acquisition. The rationale was to include:
Likely contractor performance as a factor in contract awards.
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SEI Capability Maturity Model

Major DoD contractors began CMM-based process improvement initiatives:
As they vied for DoD contracts.

SEI CMM helped organizations:

Helped Improve quality of software they developed Realized adoption of SEI CMM model had significant business benefits.

Other organizations adopted CMM.

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SEI Capability Maturity Model

In simple words:
CMM is a model for apprising the software process maturity of a contractor into different levels. Can be used to predict the most likely outcome to be expected:
from the next project that the organization undertakes.
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SEI Capability Maturity Model

Can be used in two ways:
Capability evaluation Software process assessment.

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Capability Evaluation
Provides a way to assess the software process capability of an organization:
Helps in selecting a contractor Indicates the likely contractor performance.

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 Used by an organization to assess its current process:

Software Process Assessment

Suggests ways to improve the process capability. This type of assessment is for purely internal use.
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SEI Capability Maturity Model

The SEI CMM classifies software development industries into:
Five maturity levels. Stages are ordered so that improvements at one stage provide foundations for the next. Based on the pioneering work of Philip Crosby.
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SEI Capability Maturity Model

Optimizing (5)

Managed (4)

Defined (3)
Repeatable (2)

Initial (1)

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Level 1: (Initial)
Organization operates
Without any formalized process or project plans

An organization at this level is characterized by

Ad hoc and often chaotic activities.

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Level 1: (Initial)
Software production processes are not defined,
Different engineers follow their own process Development efforts become chaotic. The success of projects depend on individual efforts and heroics.
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Level 2: (Repeatable)
Basic project management practices Size and cost estimation techniques:
Function point analysis, COCOMO, etc. used. Production process is ad hoc: Not formally defined Also not documented. Tracking cost, schedule, and functionality are followed.

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Level 2: (Repeatable)
Process used for different projects might vary between projects:
Earlier success on projects with similar applications can be repeated. Opportunity to repeat process exist when a company produces a family of products.
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Level 3: (Defined)
Management and development activities:
Defined and documented. Common organization-wide understanding of activities, roles, and responsibilities.

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Level 3: (Defined)
The process though defined: ISO 9001 aims at achieving this level.
Process and product qualities are not measured.

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Level 4: (Managed)
Quantitative quality goals for products are set. Software process and product quality are measured:

The measured values are used to control the product quality. Results of measurement used to evaluate project performance:
Rather than improve process.
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Level 4: (Managed)
Organization sets quantitative quality goals. World-wide about 100 organizations assessed at this level.

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Level 5: (Optimizing)
Statistics collected from process and product measurements are analyzed:
Continuous process improvement based on the measurements.
Known types of defects are prevented from recurring by tuning the process Lessons learned from specific projects incorporated into the process
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Level 5: (Optimizing)
Identify best software engineering practices and innovations:
Tools, methods, or process are identified. Transferred throughout the organization. World-wide about 500 organizations have been assessed at this level.
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Key Process Areas

Each level is associated with a key process area (KPA) identifies:

Where an organization at the previous level must focus to reach this level.
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Level 2 KPAs
Software project planning:
Size, cost, schedule. Project monitoring

Configuration management Subcontract management

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Level 3 KPAs
Process definition and documentation. Reviews Training program

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Level 4 KPAs
Quantitative measurements. Process management.

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Level 5 KPAs
Defect prevention. Technology change management. Process change management.

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Comparison Between ISO 9001 and SEI CMM ISO 9001 awarded by an international standards body:

SEI CMM assessment is purely for internal use.

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Can be quoted in official documents and communications.

Comparison Between ISO 9001 and SEI CMM SEI CMM was developed specifically for software industry:
Addresses many issues specific to software industry. SEI goes beyond quality assurance
Aims for TQM. ISO 9001 correspond to SEI level 3.

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Comparison Between ISO 9001 and SEI CMM

SEI CMM provides a list of key areas: Provides a way for gradual quality improvements over several stages.
On which to focus to take an organization from one level to the other

e.g trying to implement a defined process before a repeatable process:

Counterproductive as managers are overwhelmed by schedule and budget pressure.

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CMMI (CMM Integration)

CMMI is the successor of the CMM. The CMM was developed from 1987 until 1997. In 2002, CMMI Version 1.1 was released. The goal of the CMMI to integrate many different models into one framework.
It was created by members of industry, government and the SEI. Version 1.2 followed in August 2006.

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 Highly systematic and measured approach to software development process suits certain circumstances What about small organizations?
Negotiated software, safety-critical software, etc.

Remarks on Quality Model Usage

Typically handle applications such as internet, ecomm. Without an established product range, Without revenue base, experience on past projects, etc. CMM may be incompatible
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Small Organizations
Small organizations tend to believe:
We are all competent people hired to do a job, we cant afford training. We all communicate with one another.
Osmosis works because we are so close.

We are all heroes:

We do what needs to be done. Therefore rules do not apply to us.
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Small Organizations
Often have problems:
Undocumented requirements Inexperienced managers Documenting the product Resource allocation Training Peer reviews
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Small Organizations
A two week CMM-based appraisal is probably excessive: Small organizations need to operate more efficiently at lower levels of maturity
Must first fluorish if eventually they are to mature
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 Based on the work of Humphrey. PSP is a scaled down version of industrial software process:
Suitable for individual use.

Personal Software Process (PSP)

Even CMM assumes that engineers use effective personal practices.

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 A process is the set of steps for doing a job. The quality and productivity of an engineer
Largely determined by his process

Personal Software Process (PSP)

PSP framework:

Helps software engineers to measure and improve the way they work.
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Personal Software Process (PSP)

Helps developing personal skills and methods.
Estimating and planning method. Shows how to track performance against plans. Provides a defined process;
Can be fine tuned by individuals. Recognizes that a process for individual use is different from that necessary for a team 120 project.

Time Management
Track the way you spend time:
Boring activities seem longer then actual. Interesting activities seem short.

Record time for:

Designing Writing code Compiling Testing

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Personal Software Process (PSP)

Planning Design Code Compile Logs

Test
Postmortem

Project plan summary

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PSP-Planning
Problem definition Estimate max, min, and total LOC Determine minutes/LOC Calculate max,min, and total development times Enter the plan data in project plan summary form Record the planned time in Log
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PSP-Design
Design the program. Record the design in specified format. Record the Design time in time recording log.

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PSP-Code
Implement the design. Use a standard format for code text. Record the coding time in time recording log.

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PSP-Compile
Compile the program. Fix all the defects. Record compile time in time recording log.

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 Test:

PSP-Test/Postmortem

Test the program.

Fix all the defects found. Record testing time in time recording log.

Postmortem:

Complete project plan summary form with actual time and size data. Record postmortem time in time record.
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Personal Software Process (PSP)

PSP 3 Personal process evolution

PSP 2 PSP 1 PSP 0

Personal quality management Design and code reviews

Personal planning Time and schedule

Personal measurement Basic size measures

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Six Sigma
Six sigma is a quantitative approach to eliminate defects:
Applicable to all types of industry - from manufacturing, product development, to service.

The statistical representation of Six Sigma quantitatively describes :

How a process is performing.

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Six Sigma
To achieve six sigma:
A process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. 5 Sigma -> 230 defects per million. 4 Sigma -> 6210 defects per million.

Six sigma methodologies:

DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control).

DMADV: (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify).
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Six Sigma Methodologies

The methodologies are implemented by Green belt and Black belt workers:
Supervised by Master black belt worker.

Pareto Chart:

Simple bar chart to represent defect data Identify the problems that occurs with greatest frequency
or incur the highest cost
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Summary
Evolution of quality system:
Product inspection Quality control Quality assurance Total quality management (TQM)

Quality paradigm change:

From product to process

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Summary
ISO 9000:
Basic premise:
If a good process is followed Good products are bound to follow.

Provides guidelines for establishing a quality system.

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Summary
ISO 9000:
Series of three standards 9001 is applicable to software industry.
9001, 9002, and 9003

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Summary
SEI CMM
Developed specially for software industry. Classifies software organizations into five categories.

CMMI: Integrates existing quality techniques.

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According to the maturity of their development process.

Current Trends
Many organizations have already tuned their process for:
Budget, Schedule, and Quality product.

Competition is challenging them to:

Reduce time for delivery Adopt Six-Sigma methodology
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