Understanding Software Quality Assurance

Software Quality Assurance ensures that the developed software complies with the specified functional requirements. SQA is a continuous process performed all throughout the Development Life Cycle to check that the software under development meets the standard quality measures. It very clearly and adequately  defines and expresses the problems and their solutions. Its main activities are process definition, process implementation, auditing and training.

 SoftwareQuality Assurance is practiced regardless of the development model being followed. It implements testing methods and checks for the quality of the software in each of its development phase. It involves monitoring and improving the development process and makes sure that the problems found have been dealt with. 

It addresses the following issues:

-          The developed software is a physical realization of the customer requirements.

-          The software can be verified as per the physical realization.

-          The development costs, including testing, debugging and redevelopment are visible and readily categorized.

-          The benefit of the software is visible to its customer/user.

To identify the costs and benefits of a software, a number of software characteristics are defined which have been termed as quality attributes. The common definition of these software quality attributes was developed by Robert Grady at HP. This is known as the FURPS Model. This model has been defined to allow each characteristic of the software to be measurable by Quality Assurance.

The following characteristics have been defined under the FURPS Model.

Functionality: This represents the main features of the software as described in the requirement specification. 

Usability: This includes factors such as accessibility, consistency and interface aesthetics in the user interface. 

Reliability: This considers aspects such as availability, accuracy and recoverability.

Performance: This evaluates aspects such as startup time,  recovery time, system response time and throughput of information.

Supportability:  This supports testability, adaptability, compatibility, scalability etc.

This plan for quality assurance also refers to other development plans of other supporting processes. These different plans include -

1. Documentation Plan

2. Measurement Plan

3. Risk Management Plan

4. Problem Resolution Plan

5. Software Development Plan

6. Configuration Plan

7. Test Plan

A Project Manager may not actually define the project goals, but he ensures that these goals are clearly defined, agreed by the client and included in the Software Requirement Specifications without fail. Having a predefined policy statement of quality, by the development company, also forms the base for these definitions.  These specifications should be defined in quantifiable terms wherever possible. The role and responsibilities of the organization in achieving these goals should also be well defined.

Conclusion

Software Quality Assurance  considers management, development and maintenance plans. It also contains acceptance criteria as well as the reporting activities critical to the software quality. ISO9000 is the international standard used by many companies to ensure that the quality assurance system in practice is actually effective.