Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
their aims and description captured by QATF. Development teams can choose
QATs based on their action in quality risk management process, and then inte-
grate them into their software processes.
5
Discussion
The section discusses some of the benefits and limitations of using QATF that we
have observed to date. The QATF provides a systematic way to capture impor-
tant information about QATs. The template provides some information about
how QATs impact quality during development, and how QATs can be related to
software development processes. The first part of our evaluation suggests that
QATs can be integrated into process models by referring to the process tailoring
characteristics in the QATF. Although the QATF was initially motivated and
developed using safety techniques, our evaluation has shown that the framework
is also relevant for other quality attributes (performance).
The risk management categories provide a way for development team to choose
QATs based on the means by which they impact quality risks. Table 3 shows
some examples of QATs which are been organised into different risk management
categories. We expect that process improvements to identify, analyse, and control
quality risks could be undertaken by integrating corresponding QATs into the
appropriate development phases or activities. These tables also indicate that
quality management processes are iterative and ongoing. For example, FMEA
and FTA not only can be used for hazard analysis in the early development
phases but also can been applied later during testing. New hazards will have
been identified during the testing phase. These hazards can be analysed to decide
on suitable risk treatments to control the identified hazards according to their
severity and frequency of occurrence. However, the selection of QATs can be
determined in practice by other considerations. For example, available expertise
may be a limiting condition in adopting a new QAT. The framework contains
elements to describe the resources and expertise required to use each QAT.
In the development of the QATF, we have catalogued some QATs for safety
and performance, but the catalogue is incomplete. Joint efforts will be required
between between researchers, process engineers, and quality experts in develop-
ment teams to obtain a more complete catalogue of QATs across a wider range
of product qualities. We intend that QAT selection strategies and process tai-
loring methods will be supported by this framework, but they are outside of the
scope of the framework itself. Some selection strategies (e.g. [20,13]) and tai-
loring methods may be able to be extended to select and integrate QATs more
effectively into development processes. Process modelling tools such as EPF or
WAGNER may be able to be used to represent QAT information and tailor
development process models using selected QATs.
6
Conclusions and Future Work
Quality Attribute Techniques (QATs) are used by development teams to create
software with specific qualities. Potential quality problems can be identified,
