Software Quality

Assurance
Lecture # 4

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Today’s Lecture
 Reasons for poor software quality

 Characteristics of quality laggard

 Quality attributes

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 Some of the reasons for having high quality
software have been discussed in the first
lecture of this course, and so it should be
well understood now why software products
and services should have high quality
 There are negative consequences for poor
or bad quality software

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 But still we see that the software industry
still suffers from problems related to
software quality
 Now we’ll look at six root causes of poor
software quality, and discuss them in
detail

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Root Causes of Poor Software
Quality - 1
 Inadequate training of managers and staff

 Inadequate defect and cost measurement

 Excessive schedule pressure

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Root Causes of Poor Software
Quality - 2
 Insufficient defect removal

 High complexity levels

 Ambiguous and creeping requirements

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 We have just finished the discussion on
root causes of poor software quality
 Now let us look at the status of the
software industry’s seriousness of the
software industry with respect to the
software quality assurance

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Quality Assurance
Organizations
 No quality assurance 60%
 Token quality assurance 20%
 Passive quality assurance 15%
 Active quality assurance 5%

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 There is another point that must be
remembered that software varies from
industry to industry
 The focus on software quality naturally is
dependent on the industry, as well as the
importance of the software application. More
critical applications, naturally, need to have
higher software quality than others

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Software Quality in Six
Sub- Industries
 Systems software that controls physical devices
 Information systems that companies build for their own
use
 Outsource or contract software built for clients
 Commercial software built by vendors for lease or sale
 Military software built following various military
standards
 End-user software built for private use by computer
literate workers or managers

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Characteristics of Quality Laggards

 We’ll now discuss the characteristics of

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Quality Laggards - 1
 No software quality measurement program
of any kind
 No usage of formal design and code
inspections
 No knowledge of the concepts of defect
potentials and defect removal efficiency

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Quality Laggards - 2
 Either no quality assurance group or a
group that is severely understaffed
 No trained testing specialists available
 Few or no automated quality
assurance tools
 No quality and reliability estimation
capability

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Quality Laggards - 3
 Minimalor no software project
management tools available
 No automated risk assessment or
avoidance capability
 From a low of one to a high of perhaps
four distinct testing stages

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Quality Laggards - 4
 No test library or test-case management
tools available
 No complexity analysis tools utilized
 Defect potentials averaging more than 6
defects per function point

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Quality Laggards - 5
 Defect removal efficiency averaging less
than 80%
 Executive and managerial indifference
(and ignorance) of quality matters

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Other Related Issues
 Staff morale and voluntary attrition
 Market shares and competitive positioning
 Litigation and product recalls

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 Quality laggards are the very companies with
highest probability of cancelled projects,
several schedule overruns, and severe
overruns
 It is no coincidence that software groups
among the quality laggards also tend to be
candidates for immediate replacement by
outsource organizations

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 Let’s now discuss the reverse of the
practices of the quality laggards
 Let’s discuss the quality attributes, which
when exhibited will result in high quality
software

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Quality Attributes
 Quality attributes set is a way to represent
customer quality requirements
 Ask your current and prospective
customers about their definition of quality
 Develop a quality assurance program
based on the requirements of your
customers

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Categories of Quality Attributes
 Product-specific quality attributes

 Organization-specific quality attributes

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Product-Specific Attributes - 1
 Ease of use

 Documentation

 Defect tolerance

 Defect frequency

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Product-Specific Attributes - 2
 Defect impact

 Packaging

 Price versus reliability

 Performance

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Organization-Specific Attributes
 Service and support
 Internal processes

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Achieving High Levels of
Software Quality - 1
 Enterprise-wide quality programs
 Quality awareness and training methods
 Quality standards and guidelines
 Quality analysis methods
 Quality measurement methods

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Achieving High Levels of
Software Quality - 2
 Defect prevention methods
 Non-test defect removal methods
 Testing methods
 User-satisfaction methods
 Post-release quality control

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Best in Class Quality Results - 1
 Quality measurements
 Defect prevention
 Defect and quality estimation automation
 Defect tracking automation
 Complexity analysis tools

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Best in Class Quality Results - 2
 Test coverage analysis tools
 Formal inspections
 Formal testing by test specialists
 Formal quality assurance group
 Executive and managerial understanding
of quality

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Two Components of
Software Quality Improvement
 Reductions in total defect potentials using
methods of defect prevention
 Improvements in cumulative removal
efficiency levels

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References
 Software Quality: Analysis and Guidelines
for Success by Capers Jones
 Customer-Oriented Software Quality
Assurance by Frank Ginac

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