Quality Assurance (QA) and PDCA Cycle1

• Quality Assurance (QA) ensures software meets requirements and complies with organization standards.
• Quality assurance focuses on process standards, project audits, and development procedures.
• Quality assurance also involves evaluating and improving processes for quality products.
• Accomplished through planned systems processes, and tools for quality control for a reliable product.
• Quality Assurance encompasses the entire development cycle for high quality.
• The main objective of quality assurance is to push for and maintain high product standards.
• Quality Assurance ensures software engineering processes, methodologies, activities, and work items accurately monitored and fulfill predefined criteria
• Software function quality means how well a product follows core design based on functional standards.
• Software structural quality is how well project meet non-functional standards

PDCA/Deming Cycle

• The PDCA cycle involves four phases: plan, do, check, and act

Benefits of SQA

• SQA is a cost-effective investment, and it increases customer trust.
• SQA improves product safety and reliability.
• SQA lowers the costs of maintenance.
• SQA guards against system failures.

QA vs QC

• Companies should agree on what QA and QC mean to their quality management.
• QC is product-oriented, and a corrective way for quality. It involves testing.
• QA is process-oriented, implementing and improving processes.
• QA is responsibility of everyone involved in a project.
• Both QA and QC adhere to quality assurance requirements.
• Both QA and QC improve the Company's product manufacturer process.
• Both intend to cut expenses; The former seeks early detection, while the latter seeks to repair defects in finished product.

CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration)

• CMMI is a process-level improvement training and appraisal program.
• CMMI was developed at CMU and is administered by the CMMI institute.
• CMMI is needed in many U.S. government contracts, especially in software development.
• It guides process improvement for a project, division, or organization.
• CMMI maturity levels: Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively Managed, and Optimizing.
• CMMI version 2.0 was published in 2018.
• The CMMI is a proven set of global best practices for business performance.
• The best practices focus on improving the performance and aligning operational functions with business goals.
• CMMI methodologies can be integrated with Agile as well as many other methodologies.
• The CMMI guides organizations to understand capability and performance , and optimize the business operations.

Process Quality Assurance (PQA)

• The process focuses on objectively evaluating processes, work products, along with services against process descriptions, standards, and procedures.
• Includes identifying and documenting noncompliance issues.
• Also provides feedback to staff and managers on quality assurance results.
• Objectivity is the key to success and critical to project.
• Evaluators perform objective evaluations with defined points and methods.
• Evaluations check the processes and work products against applicable standards and procedures.
• Independent organizations and reviewers can achieve objectivity.
• There should be criteria such as standards and guidelines, and checklists based on process, descriptions, standings and procedures.

Objective Evaluation Methods

• Formal audits.
• Peer reviews with objective reviewers.
• review of work, such as desk audits.
• Distributed review and comment regarding work products
• Process checks to avoid mistakes and/or identify what processes have been performed incorrectly, i.e., Poka-yoke.

Poka-Yoke

• Poka-Yoke prevents errors to help reduce defects.
• This is achieved by alerting the user and delivering messages on mistakes.
• Poka-Yoke Categories:
  • Defect Prevention
  • Defect Detection

Example Activities

• Activities involving maintaining updated criteria.
• Activities involving maintaining quality checklists.
• Evaluating processes.
• Recording noncompliance.
• Leveraging of recorded data.

Example Work Products

• Criteria
• Checklists
• Evaluation reports
• Noncompliance reports
• Improvement proposals

Non-compliance Issues

• Identified when team members that don't follow procedures.
• Noncompliance issues should be resolved and addressed in a timely manner.
• Noncompliance should also be closest to the occurrence as possible.
• Noncompliance issues should be escalated when they need to be.
• Agile projects use Scrum with many opportunities for evaluating work in product.
• Includes user stories, feedback, backlog grooming, behaviors, and retrospective practices

Process Assets

• Process Assets are resources can guide management and operations.

• Temples.

• Plans

• Best Practice Examples

• Guidelines

• Organizational process assets are also used to

  • Sustain consistent process execution across the scope of the project.
  • Can be tailored with guidance using the organization.
  • Improve learning rates.
  • Long term, can increase benefits.
  • Share best practices.

• Agile teams use these to best perform their work and develop assets.

• Retrospective suggestions.

• Team members must identify and access tools.

• Existing process assets reduce costs and save time.

• You must follow updating methods and a strategy for assets.

• Verify standard processes for alignment with objectives.

• Designate responsibilities, acquire, develop and maintain processes/assets.

• Develop organization al and records as well.

• Track process with proper follow through.

• Ensure standards will be implemented.

Process Adaptation/Tailoring

• Consistently provides shared data.
• Enables change due to specific project needs.
• Tailoring must be accounted for based on business needs.
• Can allow flexibility.
• Can occur if accommodating a new process, new work.
• Adding to old or new detail in order to address constraints, and reordering when needed.

Work Environment Standards

• Should increase common tools and reduce operating costs and improve maintenance protocols.
• Work environment should be secure and up to operating standards.
• Has hardware. software and staffing support requirements.
• Should adopt updated standards and fill any gaps in objectives.
• analyze and be able to identify changes, prioritize improvements, and identify improvements for overall best.
• The authority should be able to tailor their projects.

Verification vs Validation

• Verification ensures requirements and goals are being met.
• Validation ensures everything performs as the end user will need or expect.
• Quality assurance oversees that the Verification and validation processes happen.