Inroads to Software Quality : How to Guide and Toolkit

Helps software organizations build in quality cost-effectively, starting before products are developed. This book is a highly-readable, non-theoretical guide to software quality improvement. It includes 18 "filters" that software development managers can use to instill quality throughout the development process. Presents techniques that can lead to a dramatic reduction in expensive, time-consuming functional testing. Covers all the leading process improvement tools. Managers responsible for quality processes, directors of R&D, development engineers, software testers and QA managers, process improvement engineers, business and engineering faculty, corporate trainers and ISO 9000 implementors.

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Build in the Quality--Right from the Start!

Traditionally, software developers have not concerned themselves with quality issues until products were at the end of their coding cycles. Now, by applying Dr. W. Edwards Deming's chain approach, developers can plan for quality from the very beginning and implement it throughout the entire course of development.

The methods presented in Inroads to Software Quality will put you on the road to quality certification under:

• ISO 9000
• Six Sigma
• SEI CMM levels 1Ð5
• The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards

The Product Delivery Process that lies at the heart of Inroads to Software Quality is self-correcting, market-driven, and customer-oriented. By focusing on Behavioral Testing--in place of traditional functional testing--you can make ongoing evaluation part of the cycle of continuous quality.

Inroads to Software Quality presents approximately 18 quality filters that provide timely and efficient feedback during all phases of development. You will learn how to adapt these filters to your own organization and products with a minimum of waste and rework. The flexibility of this approach allows it to be phased in gradually, without immediately dismantling your organization's existing structure.

The key themes of Process Assurance and Product Assurance underlie every aspect of the book. Individual sections offer thorough coverage of test planning and cycles; outsourcing; quality assurance standards, metrics, and reviews; and the standards and evaluation methods of the most popular quality assurance certifications.

The book's Process Improvement Roadmap explains the seven crucial steps for process improvement and presents a detailed plan for implementing them. Dozens of checklists and templates help you put the material to work right away. The accompanying diskette provides these checklists and a description of the major filters. It includes the configuration board impact assessment filter, criteria for code audits, the code audit filter, and much more!

Best of all, the authors present their concepts in a simple, user-friendly style. No statistics, no equations, just practical step-by-step explanations to help you make software development both more efficient and more responsive to user needs.