A hard look at software quality

摘要

Activities related to software quality have become important as more organizations outsource their software functions. Client organizations must assess and monitor quality of the products they receive from software development organizations. In turn, these software development organizations must have the necessary resources to ensure products developed will meet client expectations. In spite of many software quality process, there is no guarantee that the product developed serves the required purpose. Software evaluations should be based on direct evidence about a product's attributes rather than evidence about processes used to develop the product. The new ISO/IEC 25000 family of standards, also known as SQuaRE (Software Product Quality Requirements and Evaluation), appears to meet these needs. The Spanish Association for Standardization and Certification （Asociacion Espanola de Normalizacion y Certificacion， or AENOR）， which is a member of the International Certification Network (IQNet), in collaboration with Alarcos Quality Center (AQC), a spin-off of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, conducted the evaluation and certification pilot project using the new ISO/IEC 25000 family of standards. AQC and AENOR are independent organizations. AQC is responsible for evaluating software product quality, thus permitting organizations to meet a quality level and improve their software products and AENOR, as an auditing entity, is responsible for certifying the software product. Initially, this pilot project mostly focused on the quality characteristic of maintainability as maintenance is one of the most expensive phases in the software life cycle. The evaluation and certification based on this family of standards provides software developers and users assurance about the quality of the software that they are using. (7 refs.)