Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
So each process activity must conform to some standards so that the overall soft-
ware development process will have a good quality.
Even after sticking to quality processes, some defects will still exist in the
produced software product. Using software testing services, these defects can be
detected and then fixed.
So we can conclusively say that quality for a software development process
means preventing defects in the software product and software testing means
detecting and fixing defects in the software product. Together, these two processes
ensure a good-quality software product.
1... Quality Standards Evolution
Quality standards, though fairly stable, are prone to change. With increasing
sophistication, changing needs of society, and many environmental factors, quality
standards keep changing. From the existing standard, new standards keep evolving
to keep pace with changing needs. For instance, the Software Engineering Institute
at Carnegie Mellon University introduced CMM for software process quality stan-
dards. This standard addressed the needs of software development processes. Later
people began to feel that software development, software engineering, and software
maintenance processes should be governed by a single process standard. So from
CMM, a new standard evolved: Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).
In our changing world, nothing is constant. Needs change and so do the pro-
cesses to fulfill those changed needs. Even the quality standards find it difficult to
evolve fast enough so that they can be used to govern the changed processes.
The current business practice of offshoring software testing projects is a good
example of how quality standards for processes fall short of meeting changed needs.
On the offshored software test projects, the concept of mass servicing is applied.
Thus individual software test projects no longer get executed end-to-end by a dedi-
cated project team. Instead parts of the project are executed by different depart-
ments of the service provider. At these departments, these projects parts are not
treated like projects. Instead they are processed in mass quantities.
This kind of scenario is not covered under any quality standard for software pro-
cesses. It may take some time before any standards can be devised for these processes.
Bibliography
1. Johnson, D.L. and J.G. Brodman, 2000. Applying CMM Project Planning Practices to
Diverse Environments.
IEEE Software
, 17, 4 (July/August), 40-47.
