Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
sublevel processes will definitely be different. Many kinds of software are used for
mission-critical purposes and many are used casually. The first kind will require
stringent quality control measures so that they are defect-free. But the other kind
of software product may not need stringent quality control and a certain amount
of defects is acceptable.
Let us consider here software products that need to be produced with minimum
defects. After all, this topic has been written for people who are engaged in making
quality software products that have very few defects. In fact, all along we have been
discussing how to prevent defects and, after that, how to detect and fix defects that
are introduced during software development.
There is one more aspect to software development projects. More and more soft-
ware development projects are getting outsourced to software services providers.
These service providers execute the largest parts of these projects at locations that
are far away from customer locations. These locations are based in low-cost coun-
tries where cultures are very different from those in the host countries. This poses
four challenges: (1) distances, (2) different time zones, (3) geographically scattered
teams, and (4) cultural differences. To overcome these barriers, it is very important
that everybody involved on the project speak and understand a common language.
For this reason there must be a standard process that is followed and understood by
all the different people working on the same project but located at different places
and having different perceptions.
13.3.1
Standards for Software Development Processes
Now that we have proved the importance of standards in software development
processes, let us discuss the standards for software development processes.
One of the best standards for software development processes was developed at
the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. This standard
is known as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Any organization looking
to follow these standards will have to go through a phased approach [1]. These
standards are implemented in five distinct phases known as levels. These levels are
further divided into what is known as key performance areas (KPAs). Each KPA
has some goals known as key performance indicators (KPIs).
Let us discuss these KPAs and KPIs in detail.
13. 3.1.1
Requirements
Subprocesses involved in requirements gathering are formulating questionnaire for
end users, interviews with end users, documenting the requirements, and so on.
As per CMM methodology, purpose of requirement management is to establish
a common understanding between the customer and the software project of the
customer's requirements that will be addressed by the software projec
t.
