Managing Software Quality: A Measurement Framework for Assessment and Prediction

by Richard E. Nance, James D. Arthur

Overview

This is one of the shorter books in the 21 volume Practitioner Book Series, but this is entirely appropriate for a text on the ubiquitous topic of Quality. The book is written in a concise, precise no-nonsense style by two international authors. They are supported in their approach by relevant personal practical experience and by peer-review of other researchers obtained whilst disseminating their research in the academic literature. The authors base their book around their Objective/Principles/ Attributes (OPA) Framework, developed in the first place for assessment and prediction of software quality. After OPA was developed as a procedure for evaluating software development methodologies, it was expanded to include software quality measurement with the inclusion of statistical indicators and a systematic basis for deriving them. The OPA is an holistic approach to soft­ ware quality and prediction. The approach has been validated through experience gained on a 4-year on-site project, which has also led to improve­ ments to the framework.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781852333935
Publisher:	Springer London
Publication date:	08/05/2002
Series:	Practitioner Series
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2002
Pages:	126
Product dimensions:	7.52(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.43(d)

Table of Contents

1. Motivating Software Quality Meaurement.- 1.1 Software Measurement: Why, What, How and When.- 1.2 Frequent and Hidden Pitfalls.- 1.3 The Rationale of an Holistic Approach.- 1.4 Background Efforts Contributing to the Book Content.- 1.5 Purpose and Scope of the Book.- 2. Foundations for a Comprehensive Approach to Software Quality Assessment.- 2.1 Establishing a Quality Focus.- 2.2 The Objectives/Principles/Attributes (OPA) Framework.- 2.3 Software Quality Indicators.- 2.4 Influences of the Process Model.- 2.5 Establishing Measurement Goals: Assessment or Prediction.- 3. An OPA Measurement Program.- 3.1 Accommodating the Organizational Process Model.- 3.2 Measurement Program Responsibilities.- 3.3 Derivation of Software Quality Indicators.- 3.4 Interpretation of SQI Results.- 3.5 Decisions and Actions.- 4. Process Measurement.- 4.1 The Inherent Difficulty of Process Measurement.- 4.2 Indicator Derivation and Distinctions.- 4.3 Interpretation, Decisions and Actions.- 5. Product Measurement: Documentation.- 5.1 Motivation and Distinctions.- 5.2 The Characteristics of High Quality in Documentation.- 5.3 Measurement Approaches.- 5.4 Interpretation, Decisions and Actions.- 6. Product Measurement: Code.- 6.1 Indicator Distinction and Derivation.- 6.2 Attributes of Code Quality.- 6.3 Automated Collection of Code Indicators.- 6.4 Interpretation, Decisions and Actions.- 7. An Examination of Indicator Values and Their Aggregation.- 7.1 Using and Interpreting Indicator Values.- 7.2 Integrating Code, Documentation and Process Quality Indicators in a Software Quality Measurement Program.- 8. Prediction and Assessment: Differences in Goals.- 8.1 Effects of Process Models.- 8.2 Software Reuse.- 8.3 Sustaining Responsibilities and Quality Measurement.- 8.4 The Quality Database and Validity of Indicators.- 9. Software Quality: Views and Purviews.- 9.1 Software Quality: Holy Grail or Eternal Enigma?.- 9.2 What is “Quality”?.- 9.3 What about Software?.- 9.4 The Evolving Views of Software Quality.- 9.5 Software Quality: A Standard View.- References.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

"This is one of the few books in this area that addresses the 'quality' aspect based upon the important aspect of documentation. In addition, the book provides a basis for not only the software manager concerned with measurement implementation, but also the researcher in identifying the current state of the art and practice. This will be a key reference guide for anyone that is concerned with developing quality software." (William H Farr, PhD, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division)

"A thought provoking starter for a metrics professional with time to develop theory into practice. … good suggestions are made on typical things to measure. The code and test phases are well covered with extensive examples of metrics. The cost of the book is a small price to pay for the ideas it contains for a serious metrics practitioner, and it should provide some ideas for anyone involved in the measurement aspects of ISO 9001:2000." (Brian Peaker, British Computer Society, January, 2003)

From the Publisher