Software Quality

Conformance to explicitly stated functional and performance requirements,

explicitly documented development standards, and implicit characteristics that are
expected of all professionally developed software.

Cost of Quality
• Prevention costs include
• quality planning
• formal technical reviews
• test equipment
• Training
• Internal failure costs include
• rework
• repair
• failure mode analysis
• External failure costs are
• complaint resolution
• product return and replacement
• help line support
• warranty work
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 Role of the SQA Group
• Prepares an SQA plan for a project.
• The plan identifies
• evaluations to be performed
• audits and reviews to be performed
• standards that are applicable to the project
• procedures for error reporting and tracking
• documents to be produced by the SQA group
• amount of feedback provided to the software project team
• Participates in the development of the project’s software process description.
• The SQA group reviews the process description for compliance with organizational
policy, internal software standards, externally imposed standards (e.g., ISO-9001), and
other parts of the software project plan.
• Reviews software engineering activities to verify compliance with the defined
software process.
• identifies, documents, and tracks deviations from the process and verifies that
corrections have been made.
• Audits designated software work products to verify compliance with those
defined as part of the software process.
• reviews selected work products; identifies, documents, and tracks deviations; verifies
that corrections have been made
• periodically reports the results of its work to the project manager.
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 Role of the SQA Group-II
• Ensures that deviations in software work and work products are documented and
handled according to a documented procedure.
• Records any noncompliance and reports to senior management.
• Noncompliance items are tracked until they are resolved.

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What Are Reviews?
• a meeting conducted by technical people for technical people
• a technical assessment of a work product created during the software
engineering process
• a software quality assurance mechanism
• a training ground

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Six-Sigma for Software Engineering
• The term “six sigma” is derived from six standard deviations—3.4
instances (defects) per million occurrences—implying an extremely high
quality standard.
• The Six Sigma methodology defines three core steps:
• Define customer requirements and deliverables and project goals via well-
defined methods of customer communication
• Measure the existing process and its output to determine current quality
performance (collect defect metrics)
• Analyze defect metrics and determine the vital few causes.
• Improve the process by eliminating the root causes of defects.
• Control the process to ensure that future work does not reintroduce the
causes of defects.

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ISO 9001:2000 Standard
• ISO 9001:2000 is the quality assurance standard that applies to
software engineering.
• The standard contains 20 requirements that must be present for an
effective quality assurance system.
• The requirements delineated by ISO 9001:2000 address topics such
as
• management responsibility, quality system, contract review, design control,
document and data control, product identification and traceability, process
control, inspection and testing, corrective and preventive action, control of
quality records, internal quality audits, training, servicing, and statistical
techniques.

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 Software Reliability
• A simple measure of reliability is mean-time-between-failure (MTBF), where
MTBF = MTTF + MTTR
• The acronyms MTTF and MTTR are mean-time-to-failure and mean-time-to-
repair, respectively.
• Software availability is the probability that a program is operating according
to requirements at a given point in time and is defined as
Availability = [MTTF/(MTTF + MTTR)] x 100%

Software Safety
• Software safety is a software quality assurance activity that focuses on the
identification and assessment of potential hazards that may affect software
negatively and cause an entire system to fail.
• If hazards can be identified early in the software process, software design
features can be specified that will either eliminate or control potential
hazards.

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Reliability and Availability
Problems
Problem 1: Calculating MTBF
• Mean-Time-To-Failure (MTTF) = 120 hours
• Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR) = 10 hours

Calculate the Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF).

MTBF = MTTF + MTTR = 120 + 10 = 130 hours

Problem 2: Calculating Availability

• Mean-Time-To-Failure (MTTF) = 120 hours
• Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR) = 10 hours

Task: Calculate the Availability of the software system.

Availability = (MTTF / (MTTF + MTTR)) × 100%
= (120 / (120 + 10)) × 100%
= (120 / 130) × 100% ≈ 92.31%
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Agile Process Model
Agile is a flexible approach to project management and software development that
emphasizes adapting to change and delivering value incrementally. It's based on the idea
that projects should be able to respond to evolving requirements and user feedback
throughout the development process. Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban are
used to facilitate this iterative and collaborative approach.
•Iterative and Incremental Development:
Projects are broken down into smaller, manageable iterations, with
work delivered in increments.
•Collaboration and Communication:
Agile emphasizes close collaboration between team members,
stakeholders, and customers.
•Adaptability and Flexibility:
Agile allows for changes and adjustments to be made throughout
the development process.
•Focus on Value:
Agile prioritizes delivering value to the user and ensuring that the
developed product meets their needs.
•Continuous Feedback:
Regular feedback loops and reviews are used to assess progress
and make necessary adjustments.
Why is Agile Important for SQA?
•Adaptability to Change:
Agile methodologies are well-suited for projects with
evolving requirements or uncertain outcomes.
•Faster Delivery:
The incremental nature of Agile allows for faster delivery of
value to the user.
•Improved Collaboration:
The collaborative nature of Agile fosters better
communication and teamwork.
•Higher Quality Products:
Continuous testing and feedback loops in Agile help to
ensure higher quality products.
•Increased Customer Satisfaction:
Agile's focus on user feedback and continuous improvement
leads to higher customer satisfaction.
1. Scrum:
•A lightweightCommon
framework agile process
for managing models:
complex projects.
•Emphasizes iterative development, with short sprints (time-boxed
development cycles).
•Uses roles like Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team.
•Involves regular meetings, including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and
retrospectives.
•Focuses on delivering working software increments at the end of each
sprint.
2. Kanban:
•A visual workflow management system that helps teams manage work in
progress.
•Uses a Kanban board with columns to represent different stages of the
development process.
•Emphasizes continuous delivery and improvement.
•Can be adapted to various contexts, including software development,
project management, and service operations.
3. Extreme Programming (XP):
•A software development methodology that emphasizes close
collaboration between developers and customers.
•Focuses on rapid feedback, short release cycles, and a commitment to
simplicity.
•Uses practices like pair programming, frequent testing, and a test-driven
approach.
 Common agile process
4 Feature-Driven Development (FDD):
models:
A development methodology that focuses on delivering features in short,
iterative cycles.
Emphasizes clear project planning, feature prioritization, and regular
software model development.
Involves breaking down projects into smaller features, creating a model,
and developing those features in iterations.
Often used in projects with changing requirements and a need for rapid
delivery.
5. Lean Software Development:
Applies lean principles from manufacturing to software development.
Focuses on reducing waste, delivering value quickly, and improving the
software development process.
Uses practices like value stream mapping, continuous delivery, and a focus
on delivering the Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
6. Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM):
An agile methodology that provides a structured approach to software
development.
Focuses on the entire software development lifecycle, including planning,
analysis, design, development, and deployment.
Emphasizes iterative development, continuous feedback, and stakeholder
involvement.
Aims to deliver high-quality software on time and within budget.