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Software Quality

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30 views4 pages

Software Quality

Uploaded by

jeevitha siri
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SOFTWARE QUALITY

Introduction
While quality is generally agreed to be ‘a good thing’, in practice what is meant by
the ‘quality’ of a system can be vague. We need to define precisely what qualities we
require of a system. However, we need to go further – we need to judge objectively
whether a system meets our quality requirements and this needs measurement.

The Place of Software Quality in Project Planning


Quality will be of concern at all stages of project planning and execution, but will be of
particular interest at the following points in the Step Wise framework (Figure 1).

 Step 1: Identify project scope and objectives


 Some objectives could relate to the qualities of the application to be delivered.
 Step 2: Identify project infrastructure Within this step, identifies installation
standards and procedures. Some of these will almost certainly be about quality.
 Step 3: Analyse project characteristics In ‘Analyse other project characteristics –
including quality based ones’ the application to be implemented is examined to see if
it has any special quality requirements. If, for example, it is safety critical then a range
of activities could be added, such as n-version development where a number of teams
develop versions of the same software which are then run in parallel with the outputs
being cross-checked for discrepancies.
 Step 4: Identify the products and activities of the project It is at this point that the
entry, exit and process requirements are identified for each activity..
 Step 8: Review and publicize plan At this stage the overall quality aspects of the
project plan are reviewed.

The Importance of Software Quality


We would expect quality to be a concern of all producers of goods and services. However, the special charac
teristics of software create special demands.

 Increasing criticality of software The final customer or user is naturally anxious


about the general quality of software, especially its reliability. This is increasingly so
as organizations rely more on their computer systems and software is used in more
safety-critical applications, for example to control aircraft.
 The intangibility of software can make it difficult to know that a project task was
completed satisfactorily. Task outcomes can be made tangible by demanding that the
developer produce ‘deliverables’ that can be examined for quality.
 Accumulating errors during software development As computer system development
comprises steps where the output from one step is the input to the next, the errors in
the later deliverables will be added to those in the earlier steps, leading to an
accumulating detrimental effect. In general, the later in a project that an error is found
the more expensive it will be to fix. In addition, because the number of errors in the
system is unknown, the debugging phases of a project are particularly difficult to
control.

For these reasons quality management is an essential part of effective overall project
management.

ISO 9126

ISO 9126 is an international standard proposed to make sure ‘quality of all software-
intensive products’ which includes a system like safety-critical where in case of failure of
software

The Quality model is concerned classified into two categories as depicted in the following
figure:
ISO 9126 identifies six major external software quality characteristics:

 functionality, which covers the functions that a software product provides to satisfy
user needs;
 reliability, which relates to the capability of the software to maintain its level of
performance;
 usability, which relates to the effort needed to use the software;
 efficiency, which relates to the physical resources used when the software is executed;
 maintainability, which relates to the effort needed to the make changes to the
software;
 portability, which relates to the ability of the software to be transferred to a different
environment.

Internal External Quality Part


It determines the quality of a software product through six characteristics which are
Functionality, Reliability, Usability, Efficiency, Maintainability, and Portability. Each
characteristic is subdivided into related sub-characteristics which are also depicted in the
above example.
Functionality
The functions are those that will satisfy implied needs.
 Suitability
 Accuracy
 Interoperability
 Security
 Functionality Compliance
Reliability
A set of attributes that will bear on the capability of software to maintain the level of
performance.
 Maturity
 Fault Tolerance
 Recoverability
 Reliability Compliance
Usability
A set of attributes that bear on the effort needed for use by an implied set of users.
 Understandability
 Learnability
 Operability
 Attractiveness
 Usability Compliance
Efficiency
A set of attributes that bear on the relationship between the level of performance of the
software under stated conditions.
 Time Behavior
 Resource Utilization
 Efficiency Compliance
Maintainability
A set of attributes that bear on the effort needed to make specified modifications.
 Analyzability
 Changeability
 Stability
 Testability
 Maintainability Compliance
Portability
A set of attributes that bear on the ability of software to be transferred from one environment
to another.
 Adaptability
 Installability
 Co-existence
 Replaceability
 Portability Compliance
Quality in Use Model
It identifies the four quality characteristics.
 Effectiveness
 Productivity
 Safety
 Satisfaction

Quality Management Systems

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