Management quality management processes in a naval ship construction company: A qualitative case analysis

This industrial research study investigates the challenges encountered in the quality management implementation in a naval ship construction and maintenance company. This study will provide a proper view of the work completed in the process of ship construction and maintenance, especially in the Quality Department and will recommend improvements in quality, particularly in the building of a ship. Specifically, it aims to deeply examine the application of quality management knowledge and tools in the process-based work inspection planning, work monitoring activities and record-keeping information management. Additionally, the role of the Quality Department in the ship construction projects has been the main focus of this research study. In achieving the objectives, this case study has applied the qualitative approach which involved activities such as interviewing the focus group especially in Quality Department, observing the work-related activities that involve with quality work inspection process and reviewing quality-related documentation base on the ship construction work report and quality work inspection activities. The results of the three approaches were then triangulated and analysed by using Nvivo sohare for identification of relevant themes that normally use by qualitative researcher. The study has revealed the importance of team work and high understanding among various departments in managing the inspection planning and work-related information. It has identified the issues that had occurred in during the research, provided an analysis that can benefit the company and contributed to academic knowledge and also enhance the company's vision and mission. Furthermore, with proper improvement activities aligned with the actual work process will also result in higher productivity and quality of work processes as well as reducing the difficulties and problems encountered in the implementation of the quality management of this company

Master of Science

thesisDirect equivalence testing is a framework for detecting errors in C compilers and application programs that exploits the fact that program semantics should be preserved during the compilation process. Binaries generated from the same piece of code should remain equivalent irrespective of the compiler, or compiler optimizations, used. Compiler errors as well as program errors such as out of bounds memory access, stack over ow, and use of uninitialized local variables cause nonequivalence in the generated binaries. Direct equivalence testing has detected previously unknown errors in real world embedded software like TinyOS and in di fferent compilers like msp430-gcc and llvm-msp430

Using formal methods to support testing

Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing

Model-Based Test Selection for Infinite-State Reactive Systems

International audienceThis paper addresses the problem of off-line selection of test cases for testing the conformance of a black-box implementation with respect to a specification, in the context of reactive systems. Efficient solutions to this problem have been proposed in the context of finite-state models, based on the ioco conformance testing theory. An extension of these is proposed in the context of infinite-state specifications, modelled as automata extended with variables. One considers the selection of test cases according to test purposes describing abstract scenarios that one wants to test. The selection of program test cases then consists in syntactical transformations of the specification model, using approximate analyses

Model checking, testing and verification working together

We present a symbolic model checking approach that allows verifying a unit of code, e.g., a single procedure or a collection of procedures that interact with each other. We allow temporal specifications that assert over both the program counters and the program variables. We decompose the verification into two parts: (1) a search that is based on the temporal behavior of the program counters, and (2) the formulation and refutation of a path condition, which inherits conditions constraining the program variables from the temporal specification. This verification approach is modular, as we do not require that all the involved procedures are provided. Furthermore, we do not request that the code is based on a finite domain. The presented approach can also be used for automating the generation of test cases for unit testing