Quality Management

©Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 27

Slide 1

Objectives
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To introduce the quality management process and key quality management activities To explain the role of standards in quality management To explain the concept of a software metric, predictor metrics and control metrics To explain how measurement may be used in assessing software quality and the limitations of software measurement

©Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 27

Slide 2

Topics covered
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Process and product quality Quality assurance and standards Quality planning Quality control

©Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 27

Slide 3

Software quality management
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Concerned with ensuring that the required level of quality is achieved in a software product. Involves defining appropriate quality standards and procedures and ensuring that these are followed. Should aim to develop a ‘quality culture’ where quality is seen as everyone’s responsibility.
Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 27 Slide 4

©Ian Sommerville 2004

What is quality?
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Quality, simplistically, means that a product should meet its specification. This is problematical for software systems
• There is a tension between customer quality requirements (efficiency, reliability, etc.) and developer quality requirements (maintainability, reusability, etc.); Some quality requirements are difficult to specify in an unambiguous way; Software specifications are usually incomplete and often inconsistent.

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©Ian Sommerville 2004

Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 27

Slide 5

The quality compromise
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We cannot wait for specifications to improve before paying attention to quality management. We must put quality management procedures into place to improve quality in spite of imperfect specification.

©Ian Sommerville