Importance of Software Development Standards

Questions and Answers

What is the main advantage of separating quality management from project management?

To reduce the importance of quality management

To increase the budget for quality management

To ensure quality considerations are compromised by concerns of budget and schedule

To ensure quality considerations are not compromised by concerns of budget and schedule (correct)

What is the purpose of the CMM model?

To reduce the cost of software development

To identify the key practices required to decrease the maturity of software processes

To assess the quality of software products

To identify the key practices that are required to increase the maturity of software processes (correct)

What is characteristic of the 'Initial' level of the CMM model?

Integrated software process for the organization

Ad hoc and occasionally chaotic processes (correct)

Basic project management processes

Well-defined and standardized processes

What is the purpose of the 85 items questionnaire in the CMM model?

To judge the maturity of the software processes of an organization Signup and view all the answers

At which level of the CMM model are software processes documented, standardized, and integrated into a standard software process for the organization?

Level 3: Defined Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of ISO 9000 certification?

To meet the standards in quality management Signup and view all the answers

What is characteristic of the 'Repeatable' level of the CMM model?

Basic project management processes are established Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of having SQA tasks in place and a quality management process?

To have most of ISO elements Signup and view all the answers

What is the highest level of the CMM model?

Level 5: Optimizing Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of assessing the maturity of software processes in an organization?

To identify the key practices required to increase the maturity of software processes Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Quality Standards

Standards are essential for effective quality management and can be international, national, organizational, or project-specific.
Product standards define characteristics that all components should exhibit, such as a common programming style.
Process standards define how the software process should be enacted.

Importance of Standards

They encapsulate best practices, avoiding repetition of past mistakes.
They provide a framework for the quality assurance process, involving checking standard compliance.
They ensure continuity, enabling new staff to understand the organization by understanding applied standards.

Well-known Quality Standards

ISO 9000 (International Standards Organization) is an international set of standards for quality management.
CMM (Capability Maturity Model) was developed by the SEI.

ISO 9000 Standards

They are applicable to a range of organizations, from manufacturing to service industries.
ISO 9001:2000 specifies requirements for a quality management system, aiming to enhance customer satisfaction.
ISO 9004:2000 provides guidance for continual improvement of a quality management system, benefiting all parties.

ISO 9000 Certification

Quality standards and procedures should be documented in an organizational quality manual.
An external body may certify that an organization's quality manual conforms to ISO 9000 standards.
Customers increasingly demand that suppliers are ISO 9000 certified.

ISO 9000 Certification Challenges

ISO 9000 standards are documentation-based, requiring formal documents for every step of every process.
Most companies (60-70%) fail the ISO audit the first time, often due to deficiencies in corrective actions and document control.

ISO 9000 and Quality Management

An organization with SQA tasks in place and a quality management process would have most of ISO elements.
Ideally, quality management should be separate from project management to ensure quality considerations are not compromised by budget and schedule concerns.

CMM Standard

CMM is a model for judging the maturity of an organization's software processes and identifying key practices to increase maturity.
Assessment uses an 85-item questionnaire, and the model consists of 5 levels: Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed, and Optimizing.

CMM Levels

Level 1: Initial - ad hoc and chaotic, with few defined processes.
Level 2: Repeatable - basic project management processes established to track cost, schedule, and functionality.
Level 3: Defined - software process for both management and engineering activities are documented, standardized, and integrated.
Level 4: Managed - process discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes.
Level 5: Optimizing - continuous improvement of processes.