Sommerville-Software-Engineering-10ed

702 Chapter 24 ■ Quality management
Software development
process
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5
Quality management
process
Standards and
procedures
Quality
plan
Quality review reports
Figure 24.1 Quality
management and
software development
for checking that the system tests provide coverage of the requirements and that
proper records of the testing process are maintained.
The QM team should be independent and not part of the software development
group so that they can take an objective view of the quality of the software. They can
report on software quality without being influenced by software development issues.
Ideally, the QM team should have organization-wide responsibility for quality management.
They should report to management above the project manager level.
Because project managers have to maintain the project budget and schedule, they
may be tempted to compromise on product quality to meet that schedule. An independent
QM team ensures that the organizational goals of quality are not influenced by
short-term budget and schedule considerations. In smaller companies, however, this is
practically impossible. Quality management and software development are inevitably
intertwined with people having both development and quality responsibilities.
Formalized quality planning is an integral part of plan-based development processes.
It is the process of developing a quality plan for a project. The quality plan should set
out the desired software qualities and describe how these qualities are to be assessed. It
defines what “high-quality” software actually means for a particular system. Engineers,
therefore, have a shared understanding of the most important software quality attributes.
Humphrey (Humphrey 1989), in his classic book on software management, suggests
an outline structure for a quality plan. This outline includes the following:
1. Product introduction A description of the product, its intended market, and the
quality expectations for the product.
2. Product plans The critical release dates and responsibilities for the product,
along with plans for distribution and product servicing.
3. Process descriptions The development and service processes and standards that
should be used for product development and management.
4. Quality goals The quality goals and plans for the product, including an identification
and justification of critical product quality attributes.
5. Risks and risk management The key risks that might affect product quality and
the actions to be taken to address these risks.