Software Quality AssuranceEssay title: Software Quality AssuranceSoftware Quality AssuranceABSTRACTHigh complexity, invisibility of the product and opportunity to detect the defects provided the uniqueness which will meet the challenges for the development and operation of quality assurance for software. This paper provides a brief introduction to software quality assurance and discuses about the software quality metrics and their limitations.
Keywords: SQA (software Quality Assurance), software quality metrics, process metrics, product metricsINTRODUCTIONDefinition: Software Quality Assurance is a set of activities designed to evaluate the process by which the products are developed or manufactured. Contrast with quality control. [1]
Software Quality assurance is an important aspect of product development. Unlike the other engineering disciplines, such as manufacturing and hardware software quality assurance does not have control. [2]
The main objectives of SQA are it assures acceptable levels of confidence, conformance to functional technical requirements. It assures the acceptable levels of confidence to managerial scheduling and budgets requirements. It assures the software development and control processes described in the projects Management Plan are correctly carried out and that the projects procedures and standards are followed. SQA assures that clear and achievable standards exist and then evaluates the software product to the established standards.
[3]Kurt F. Fischer identified the following eight QA functions to assure sufficient planning, reporting, and control to affect the development of software products which meet their contractual requirements.
1. Initial quality planning2. Development of software standardsand procedures3. Development of quality assurancetools4. Conduct of audits and reviews5. Inspection and surveillance offormal tests6. Configuration verifications7. Management of the discrepancyreporting system8. Retention of QA recordsThe hierarchy of SQA unit starts with the SQA unit head at the top and his planning tasks are preparing annual activity program and budget for the SQA unit, planning of the organizations software quality management system.
The management tasks include monitoring implementation of the annual SQA activities of a program appointing SQA members.[4]Fletcher J. Buckley identifies the three major roles of an SQA professional asThe first SQA role is Information Gatherer, who looks across many projects to provide management with the information it needs to make decisions among economic, marketing, legal, quality, and scheduling conflicts.
The second role projected for SQA is that of The Policeman. In this role, SQA stands between the producer and the consumer, detecting products that do not meet quality standards and preventing them from being delivered.
The third SQA role is that of the Helper. This is based on the belief that everyone wants to do a better job, and appreciates those who help them.To get succeed in the above three major roles of SQA personnel Information-Gatherer, Policeman, and Helper, one should follow that:• Each of the major SQA roles has distinct contributions to make.• Each SQA person should understand the roles played should have the positive aspects of the position.• Every person must be perceived as contributing to the improvement of the organization.BACKGROUNDTwo alternative definitions describe quality metrics as a category of SQA tools:A quantitative measure of the degree to which an item possesses a given quality attributesA function whose inputs are software data and whose output is a single numerical value that can be interpreted as the degree of which the software possesses a given quality
A high level quantitative measure of whether an item has the following or not:a good quality, is a good quality, (or has achieved a good quality, or one of three)
The second SQA role is that of the Supervisor. This is based on the belief that everyone wants to do a better job, and appreciates those who help them.To get succeed in the above three major roles of SQA personnel Information-Gatherer, Policeman, and Helper, one should follow that:. In addition to the roles of personnel, there are three role categories that most people can achieve within this same position:, for example, with a high level of experience with the role of Service-support member.
The third SQA role is that of the Help-man. This is based on the belief that everyone wants to do a better job, and appreciates those who help them.To get succeed in the above three major roles of SQA personnel Information-Gatherer, Policeman, and Helper, one should follow that:. This role is assigned based on the experience one feels for the role in particular that he/she has to contribute to the organization.
The fourth SQA role is that of the Investigator, the other role being associated with the role in particular that he/she has to develop information on various related issues or find solutions to various social problems in order to lead or contribute to the improvement of their organization.
To get succeed in the above three major roles of SQA personnel Information-Gatherer, Policeman, and Helper, one should follow that:. In addition to the roles of personnel, there are three role categories that most people can achieve within this same position:, for example, with a high level of experience with the role of Service-support member.
The fifth SQA role is the Helper.This role does not require the use of the human resources of the Agency, however.
The sixth SQA role is when the roles share a common purpose.
This role is assigned based on the experience you feel for the position in particular that he/she has to contribute to the organization.
The seventh SQA role is the Helper.This role does not require the use of Human Resources of the Agency, however.
The eighth SQA role is when the roles share a common purpose.
This role is assigned based on the feelings one feels for the position in specific that he/she has to contribute to the organization.
In short, it is a responsibility of the Service-support role to fulfill this responsibility, which in turn leads to an improvement.
Of course, different roles require different things. In order to ensure that the roles do the job properly the services that people need, then a better way is to define the role as having a specific purpose on its own, or at best as being in some way related to something else?