Software Engineering Resources
	Quality Management It's not enough to talk the talk by saying that software quality is important, you have to (1) explicitly define what is meant when you say 'software quality', (2) create a set of activities that will help ensure that every software engineering work product exhibits high quality, (3) perform quality assurance activities on every software project, (4) use metrics to develop strategies for improving your software process, and as a consequence, improving the quality of the end product. The following topic categories are presented: QM and SQA Resources The QM/SQA Process/Standards Formal Technical Reviews (FTRs) Software Reliability Poka Yoke QM & SQA Tutorials, Articles, and Papers QM/SQA Methods & Tools Books QM and SQA Resources Quality Resources - 1 A comprehensive guide to on-line quality resources. Quality Resources - 2 A useful set of resources that address management and quality issues. Quality Resources - 3 Good source for software quality resources. Quality Resources - 4 Addresses process, organizations, publications, conferences and other info sources. QA/Testing Resource Center A wide array of resources, checklists, and pointers. Recommended. QA Institute Quality related information. Membership required. Total Quality Management Information and Resources Continuous process improvement and TQM software, tutorials, and links can be found at this site, sponsored by the Industrial Engineering department at Clemson University. SQA Resources A brief list of SQA resources with an emphasis on testing. Tantara Resources Pointers to QA and process improvement resources. Recommended. Quality Gurus A listing of important contributors to the quality movement over the past decades. Interesting reading for those who have real interest in quality issues. Bug Tracking and Defect Tracking Contains quality assurance/testing links with an emphasis on bug tracking and defect tracking tools, articles, sites, books, forums and related subjects. Recommended. The QM/SQA Process/Standards ISO9000 / 9001 Resources and Information Extensive links to ISO resources. Recommended. Six Sigma Everything six sigma - news, resources, papers. Recommended. Statistical Process Control (SQC) SQC and other quality related information is available through the American Society for Quality. Control Charts as a tool in SQC An in-depth discussion of control charts. Quality and Statistical Process Control Everything you need to know about the use of control charts. Recommended. Formal Technical Reviews (FTRs) The NASA SATC Formal Inspection Guidebook This guidebook, developed by NASA, provides in depth information for those who need guidance in conducting inspections. Recommended. An FTR Guide Excellent outline of FTR process, tasks, checklists and other related information. Recommended. FTR Archive An extensive collection of resources on FTRs. Recommended. FTR Options for GUI Assessment A worthwhile discussion of FTR's that can be applied for the review of GUI's. Goodies for Software Peer Reviews Forms, checklists, process descriptions, data spreadsheets. Auditing Checklists Pointers to auditing checklists for appraising software organizations can be obtained at: Quality Audits Useful information for software quality auditors can be obtained at this site. Software Reliability & Safety Reliability Resources An extensive set of reliability pointers can be found at the WWW Sites of Reliability Interest. Recommended. The Centre for Software Reliability (CSR) Housed at City University (UK) the centre provides information on the following topics: Software dependability (particularly safety and reliability) modeling, Software fault tolerance, Software metrics and quality assurance, Fundamental issues for safety critical systems are also addressed. Software Risk and Reliability Papers A variety of worthwhile papers that address software risk and reliability can be downloaded. Software Safety Papers Worthwhile papers on software safety (and a detailed glossary) can be found at this site. Safety Critical Systems This site contains provides pointers and information on Safety-Critical Systems (software for systems in which human lives may be at risk). Resources include: Relevant newsgroups, Repositories and mailing lists, Courses, Clubs and organizations, On-line publications, Journals, Books, vendors and a searchable bibliography. Software Supportability.org This site discusses the techniques required to support software over its complete lifetime. "This implies satisfying any necessary needs or requirements, but also the provision of equipment, support infrastructure, additional software, facilities, manpower, or any other resource required to maintain the software operational and capable of satisfying its function." Poka Yoke Poka-Yoke Resources A useful set of Poka-Yoke resources (including a tutorial) can be found at this site. Using Poka-Yoke Techniques for Early Defect Detection Harry Robinson's paper can be found here. List of Poke Yoke Papers Compiled at Six Sigma. Poke Yoke Tutorial and Resources A brief tutorial along with links to other resources. Everyday Examples of Poke Yoke 45 examples of the use of Poke Yoke. QM & SQA Tutorials, Articles, and Papers Papers on the Law of Software Quality A collection of worthwhile papers by Cem Kaner. Quality Characteristics Discusses the many dimension of quality and the software process. A Comparison of Deming, Juran, and Crosby A table that compares the philososphy each of these quality gurus (and others) HCi Journal A large collection of quality related papers. Software-engineer.org A worthwhile collection of SQA-related papers and articles. Most Software Stinks! A provacative article that is well-worth reading. Identifies general principles for achieving "aesthetic software." Comments on Software Quality A brief paper by Watt humphrey. Quality Cost Analysis A detailed discussion of the costs and benefits associated with software quality. Recommended. QM/SQA Methods & Tools Quality Tools A useful collection of small quality tools. Testing Tools Suppliers A list of testing tools vendors. Books Books by Moriguchi (Software Excellence: A Total Quality Management Guide, Productivity Press, 1997) and Horch (Practical Guide to Software Quality Management, second edition, Artech Publishing, 2003) are excellent management-level presentations on the benefits of formal quality assurance programs for computer software. Books by Deming (Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, 1986), Juran (Juran on Quality by Design, Free Press, 1992), and Crosby (Quality is Free, McGraw-Hill, 1979 and Quality is Still Free, McGraw-Hill, 1995) do not focus on software, but are must reading for senior managers with software development responsibility. Gluckman and Roome (Everyday Heroes of the Quality Movement, Dorset House, 1993) humanizes quality issues by telling the story of the players in the quality process. Kan (Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering, Addison-Wesley, 1995) presents a quantitative view of software quality. The ISO 9001:2000 quality standard is discussed by Cianfani and his colleagues (ISO 9001:2000 Explained, second edition, American Society for Quality, 2001) and Gaal (ISO 9001:2000 for Small Business: Implementing Process-Approach Quality Management, St. Lucie Press, 2001). Tingley (Comparing ISO 9000, Malcolm Baldrige, and the SEI CMM for Software, Prentice-Hall, 1996) provides useful guidance for organizations that are striving to improve their quality management processes. Oskarsson (An ISO 9000 Approach to Building Quality Software, Prentice-Hall, 1995) discusses the ISO standard as it applies to software. Books by George (Lean Six Sigma, McGraw-Hill, 2002), Pande and his colleagues (The Six Sigma Way Fieldbook, McGraw-Hill, 2001), and Pyzdek (The Six Sigma Handbook, McGraw-Hill, 2000) describe Six Sigma, a statistical quality management technique that leads to products that have very low defect rates. Dozens of books have been written about software quality issues in recent years. The following is a small sampling of useful sources: Clapp, J.A., et al., Software Quality Control, Error Analysis and Testing, Noyes Data Corp., 1995. Daughtrey, T., Fundamental Concepts for the Software Quality Engineer, ASQ, 2001. Ginac, F.P., Customer Oriented Software Quality Assurance, Prentice-Hall, 1998. Ince, D., An Introduction to Software Quality Assurance and its Implementation, McGraw-Hill, 1994. Jarvis, A. and V. Crandall, Inroads to Software Quality: “How to” Guide and Toolkit, Prentice-Hall, 1997. Meyerhoff, D. et al (eds.), Software Quality and Testing In Internet Times, Springer-Verlag, 2002. Nance, R. and J. Arthur, Managing Software Quality, Springer-Verlag, 2002. O'Regan, G., A Practical Approach to Software Quality, Springer-Verlag, 2002) Wallmuller, E., Software Quality Assurance: A Practical Approach, Prentice-Hall, 1995. Wieczorek, Martin et al (eds.), Software Quality: State of the Art in Management, Testing and Tools, Springer-Verlag, 2001) Wilson, R.C., Software Rx: Secrets of Engineering Quality Software, Prentice-Hall, 1997. Radice (High Quality, Low Cost Software Inspections, Paradoxicon Publishers, 2002), Wiegers (Peer Reviews in Software: A Practical Guide, Addison-Wesley, 2001), Gilb and Graham (Software Inspection, Addison-Wesley, 1993) and Freedman and Weinberg (Handbook of Walkthroughs, Inspections and Technical Reviews, Dorset House, 1990) provide worthwhile guidelines for conduction effective formal technical reviews. Musa (Software Reliability Engineering: More Reliable Software, Faster Development and Testing, McGraw-Hill, 1998) has written a practical guide to applied software reliability techniques. Anthologies of important papers on software reliability have been edited by Kapur et al. (Contributions to Hardware and Software Reliability, World Scientific Publishing Co., 1999), Gritzalis (Reliability, Quality and Safety of Software-Intensive Systems, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997), and Lyu (Handbook of Software Reliability Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 1996). Hermann (Software Safety and Reliability, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2000), Storey (Safety-Critical Computer Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1996) and Leveson (Safeware: System Safety And Computers, Addison-Wesley, 1995) continue to be the most comprehensive discussions of software safety published to date. In addition, van der Meulen (Definitions for Hardware and Software Safety Engineers, Springer-Verlag, 2000) offers a complete compendium of important concepts and terms for reliability and safety; Gartner (Testing Safety-Related Software, Springer-Verlag, 1999) provided specialized guidance for testing safety critical systems; Friedman and Voas (Software Assessment: Reliability Safety and Testability, Wiley, 1995) provide useful models for assessing reliability and safety. Books by Shingo (Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka-yoke System, Productivity Press, 1986) (The Shingo Production Management System: Improving Process Functions, Productivity Press, 1992) and Shimbun (Poka-Yoke: Improving Product Quality by Preventing Defects, Productivity Press, 1989) discuss the poka-yoke technique for mistake-proofing software is discussed by Shingo.