Summary

11.8 Summary

The software quality activities like hardware quality activities are a monitoring and reporting function. The role of the SQS is to monitor the status and progress of the software development and maintenance processes. It then reports its findings to the level of management that has the authority to take any necessary corrective action.

Implementation of an SQS requires planning by the software quality group and the involvement of the affected groups.

Early in the planning stages, a statement of what the system will accomplish is necessary. A charter will describe the expectations and the authority of the SQS and group. Without management commitment, any quality system is unlikely to succeed. The charter demonstrates management's commitment to the SQS.

Involvement of the development groups is also necessary to the success of the SQS. Encouraging the groups to be monitored to have a say in what the monitoring will comprise ensures that the system will be met with reduced resistance when it is implemented.

Many system implementation schemes exist. No one approach is likely to be useful in all cases. Likewise, no one SQS will be appropriate in every case. Each system and its implementation must be tailored to the particular company needs and the project being addressed.

It is desirable in the case of the SQS itself that a minimum set of quality assurance functions be established. Each project may add to that minimum set, but none may do less. In that way, all software projects are monitored to some degree, and the likelihood of requirements compliance is raised.

Three important points should be made. First, software quality practitioners may, but usually do not, perform the various activities that constitute the SQS. The actual performance is carried out by those parts of the overall organization best qualified to perform them.

Second, the software quality practitioners are not an enforcement agency. Only decision-making management has the authority to enforce anything. Software quality practitioners only monitor and report.

Finally, software quality practitioners must be administratively and financially independent of the groups performing the functions that the practitioner is monitoring. Further, the software quality practitioner must report to at least the same organizational level as the monitored groups. That permits the software quality practitioner the freedom to report objectively to management.



Practical Guide to Software Quality Management
Practical Guide to Software Quality Management (Artech House Computing Library)
ISBN: 1580535275
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 137
Authors: John W. Horch

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