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:
(1) a quality management approach
(2) effective software engineering technology
(3) formal technical reviews
(4) a multi-tiered testing strategy
(5) document change control
(6) software development standard and its control
procedure
(7) 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:
--> 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