Process-Oriented ‚Software Quality’ : The Management of Requirements and Characteristics

Autoren: R. Petrasch

Herausgegeber:

Erschienen in: Forschungsbericht Preprint, FH Nordakademie, 1999 (PDF-Datei)

Verlag: , 1999

Inhalt:

A prerequisite for a quality system is the definition of the relevant notions. The intention is to create a common understanding not only in development teams but also between suppliers and customers. In the center of interest are the terms quality, requirement and characteristic.

Requirements engineering ensures that requirements are defined and traced, but the measurement of software quality is only possible when characteristics of the software product are taken into account, i.e. (stated and implied) requirements should be explicitly related with product characteristics. At the first look, this concept seems to be rather theoretical. However, its practical importance becomes comprehensible when it comes to quality in the real world: Often suppliers and customers have different interpretations about problems with a piece of software, not only because the requirements are not properly defined, but also because of the inability to identify the appropriate characteristics which cause the alleged fault.

Although there is no “instant” technique to solve “software’s chronic crisis” [10], this article contributes to a better understanding of quality in conjunction with requirements and characteristics that can help to avoid unnecessary discussions about software faults.

The following description results from the need to have a comprehensible and uniform definition not only for software quality, but also for requirement and characteristic inside software projects. The fact that the personnel consist of mainly software engineers was considered. That is why this explanation will not remain on a theoretical level, but also uses a real life example.