Software Engineering Term Paper

Topic:Software Quality Assurance

Name:Shriram Kaveseri

Definition A software quality assurance is a

“planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that the item or product conforms to established technical requirements”

Contents Introduction Different Phases in SQA Merits of SQA Demerits of SQA Conclusion References

Phases in SQA Standards and Procedures Software Quality Assurance

Activities Software Quality Assurance

Relationships to other Assurance Activities

Software Quality Assurance During the Software Acquisition Life Cycle

Techniques and Tools

Standards and Procedures Standards are the established

criteria to which the software products are compared

Procedures are the established criteria to which the development and control processes are compared

Types of Standards Documentation Standards Design Standards Code Standards

Documentation Standard Documentation standards provide

specific form and content for planning,control,and product documentation and also provides consistency throughout a project.

Design Standard Design standards provide specific

form and content of the design product,and also provides rules and method for translating the software requirements into the software design and for representing it in the design documentation

Code Standard Code Standards define legal

language structures ,style conventions,rules for data structures and interfaces, and internal code documentation.

Software Quality Assurance Activities Product Evaluation Process Monitoring

Product Evaluation Product evaluation is an SQA

activity that assures certain standards to be followed

Product evaluation also assures that the software product reflects the requirements of the applicable standards as identified in the management plan.

Process Monitoring Process monitoring is an SQA

activity that assures that appropriate steps to carry out the process are being followed

The assurance section of management specifies the methods to be used by the SQA process monitoring activity.

Role of SQA in various Assurance Activities Configuration Management

Monitoring Verification and Validation

Monitoring Formal Test Monitoring

Configuration Management Monitoring SQA assures that software configuration

monitoring activities are performed in accordance with the CM plans,standards, and procedures.

The various CM activities are: Baseline Control Configuration Identification Configuration Control Configuration Status Configuration Authentication

Verification and Validation

Verification:”Are we building the product right”

Validation:”Are we building the right product”

SQA assures Verification and Validation activities by monitoring technical reviews,inspections, and walkthroughs

Formal Test Monitoring Testing the software requirements in

accordance with test plans. Test procedures are verifiable Exact version of the software is being

tested Nonconformances are noted and recorded Test report are accurate and complete Regression Testing is conducted Resolution of all nonconformances takes

place in accordance with the delivery

SQA during Software Development Life Cycle Software concept and initiation phase Software requirements phase Software architectural design phase Software detailed design phase Software implementation phase Software integration and test phase Software acceptance and delivery phase Software sustaining engineering and

operation phase

 Techniques and Tools A fundamental SQA technique is

the audit which looks at a process or a product in depth,comparing them to established procedures and standards

Merits Develops and monitors adherence

to project standards. Perform audits of the process and

work product accepts. Develops and performs the

aceptance tests.

Conclusion Techniques for assessing and improving software

quality include systematic quality assurance procedures,walkthrough Inspection,testings and formal verification.

In practice, a combination of techniques is required to asses and improve software quality:inspections,walkthroughs, and quality assurance are procedures that can be used throughout the product life cycle.

On a whole Software Quality Assurance is a group of related activities employed throughout the software life cycle to positively influence and quantify the quality of the delivered software.

References http://satc.gsfc.nasa.gov/homepage.html http://satc.gsfc.nasa.gov/assure/agbsec3.txt http://www.sytsma.com/tqmtools/

ctlchtprinciples.html http://www.csr.city.ac.uk/papers/index.html http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/iso9000-14000/

iso9000/qmp.html http://www.sei.cmu.edu/sei-home.html ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/

03.reports/pdf/03sr001.pdf

Thank You

Shriram Kaveseri Gopalakrishnan