PaTaS: Quality Assurance for Model-driven Software Development

The quality of software products in safety critical applications, extensively found within the space domain, is a key success factor but also a major cost driver. To ensure high quality of the software product, quality assurance processes with quality models and metrics are applied. With these tools and processes, product assurance managers and software developers are able to quantify the quality of the software under development. Within the ESA-funded study PaTaS (Product Assurance with TASTE Study), a product quality model with software and model metrics was developed and implemented in an end-to-end model-driven software development (MDSD) life cycle demonstrator. The goal of this study was to identify applicable concepts to maintain quality and dependability levels when MDSD is applied. This requires the definition of connected model and software quality indicators. These indicators were integrated into ESA’s reference software product quality model (ECSS-Q-HB-80-04A). The resulting adapted quality model got incorporated in a model-driven software development life cycle demonstrator. To evaluate this demonstrator and the integrated quality indicators in a realistic development scenario, mission-critical parts of the command and data handling subsystem of a satellite mission were modelled and subsequently coded. The aim of the activity was to demonstrate the effect of the end-to-end life cycle in combination with the developed quality model on the final onboard software product. In this paper we present the result of the study. The focus is on the quality model for MDSD and new quality metrics for models, which can be embedded in an end-to-end model-driven product development life cycle

The application of performance indicators to quality assessment and audit in higher education

This report describes research to investigate whether the use of performance indicators could improve, enrich or enhance the process of academic quality review. It uses a new technique based on soft systems methodology and developed by researchers at London South Bank University. This technique, referred to as the Holon methodology, has been adapted from the domain of software quality assurance and can be used to help develop performance indicators from successive refinement of the vision of a "desired state" of various stakeholders within a system. The research does not assume the existence of any particular system of quality assessment or audit but starts from first principles, through a literature review of work on both quality assessment and audit, and on the use of performance indicators in higher education. The main phase of the research is a series of interviews with academic staff and students to elicit views on what constitutes a high quality student experience. Seven performance indicators are produced and the research also addresses the use of quality assurance terms and techniques from outside higher education. The suitability and limitations of the methodology are also discussed

CMMI – AN ANSWER TO THE SOFTWARE CRISIS?

International audienceAs regularly mentioned in the current "software crisis", the software must be developed while the system definition is not yet frozen. In 2001, EADS SPACE Transportation started a CMM approach to improve its software development process. But even if the projects became more deterministic, the software developments still remained depending on system evolutions, and continued to appear very costly. So it was decided to use the CMMI maturity model, adapted to our industrial domain and now applied by many companies. We really think that the CMMI approach allows to improve both the system and software engineering processes:-The CMMI management processes are mandatory to efficiently plan, control and manage complex projects.-The technical processes must contribute to well organize the project. The CMMI project has just begun, so the expected benefits and savings are not yet visible. In parallel, other improvements are also expected from the software R&D activities presented in the paper. The paper will present:-an overview of the "software crisis",-a presentation of SW-CMM and CMMI,-The main improvements achieved through the SW-CMM project and expected from the CMMI project,-The software R&D roadmap at EADS SPACE Transportation

Management: A continuing bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 551 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into NASA scientific and technical information system in 1980

Design and integrity of deterministic system architectures.

Architectures represented by system construction 'building block' components and interrelationships provide the structural form. This thesis addresses processes, procedures and methods that support system design synthesis and specifically the determination of the integrity of candidate architectural structures. Particular emphasis is given to the structural representation of system architectures, their consistency and functional quantification. It is a design imperative that a hierarchically decomposed structure maintains compatibility and consistency between the functional and realisation solutions. Complex systems are normally simplified by the use of hierarchical decomposition so that lower level components are precisely defined and simpler than higher-level components. To enable such systems to be reconstructed from their components, the hierarchical construction must provide vertical intra-relationship consistency, horizontal interrelationship consistency, and inter-component functional consistency. Firstly, a modified process design model is proposed that incorporates the generic structural representation of system architectures. Secondly, a system architecture design knowledge domain is proposed that enables viewpoint evaluations to be aggregated into a coherent set of domains that are both necessary and sufficient to determine the integrity of system architectures. Thirdly, four methods of structural analysis are proposed to assure the integrity of the architecture. The first enables the structural compatibility between the 'building blocks' that provide the emergent functional properties and implementation solution properties to be determined. The second enables the compatibility of the functional causality structure and the implementation causality structure to be determined. The third method provides a graphical representation of architectural structures. The fourth method uses the graphical form of structural representation to provide a technique that enables quantitative estimation of performance estimates of emergent properties for large scale or complex architectural structures. These methods have been combined into a procedure of formal design. This is a design process that, if rigorously executed, meets the requirements for reconstructability

Sílabo de Calidad de software

La asignatura contiene: ¿Qué es calidad de software? Modelos de proceso de desarrollo de software. Fundamentos de las teorías de medida. Revisión de las métricas de calidad de software. Aplicando las siete herramientas básicas de calidad en el desarrollo de software. Eficacia removiendo defectos. El modelo Rayleigh. Distribución exponencial y modelos de crecimiento de la fiabilidad. Modelo de la administración de la calidad. Métricas para las pruebas de software. Modelos y métricas de complejidad. Métricas y lecciones aprendidas en los proyectos orientados a objetos. Medición y análisis de la satisfacción del cliente. Conduciendo el proceso de aseguramiento de calidad

Fiscal year 1973 scientific and technical reports, articles, papers, and presentations

Formal NASA technical reports, papers published in technical journals, and presentations by MSFC personnel in FY73 are presented. Papers of MSFC contractors are also included

A Fuzzy Multi Criteria Decision Making Approach To Software Life Cycle Model Selection

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2011Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2011Yazılım, bugünün dünyasında çok geniş bir uygulama alanına sahip ve her türlü iş için bir gereksinim konumundadır. Dolayısıyla, yüksek kalitede yazılım üretmek her türlü iş başarısı için vazgeçilmez bir öneme sahiptir. Yazılım kalitesini sağlamak için, yazılım mühendisliği proje yönetimi yazılım yaşam döngüsünün her aşamasında yer almalıdır. Yazılım mühendisliği proje yönetiminin olmaması yada yeterli olmaması, projelerin zaman, bütçe ve gerekli özellikleri yerine getirememekten dolayı başarısız olmalarına sebep olmaktadır. Diğer yandan, etkin ve verimli yazılım projesi yönetimi halen, yazılım organizasyonları için bir zorluk olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Yazılım mühendisliği proje yönetimi planlama, koordinasyon ve geliştirme aşamalarının kontrolünü gerektirdiğinden, paydaşların memnuniyetini, gereksinimleri ve hedefleri garantileyecek ve yazılım mühendislerine ürün ve geliştirmelerin uygulanmasında önemli kolaylık sağlayacak kararlar verilmelidir. Özetle, karar verme, yazılım geliştirme sürecinde uygulanması gereken süreçlerden biri olmalıdır. Yazılım mühendisliği proje yönetimindeki kritik konulardan birisi de, projenin başarısını etkileyebilecek öneme sahip olan yazılım yaşam döngüsü modeli seçimidir. Yazılım geliştirme sürecinin tamamı seçilen model üzerine kurulduğundan, yazılım yaşam döngüsü modelinin seçimi projenin tüm aşamalarında işgücünün verimli bir şekilde kullanılması açısından vazgeçilmez bir unsurdur. Bulanık kümeler, belirsizliği,kararsızlığı ve insan subjektifliğini temsil etmede en etkin metodlardan birisi olduğundan, bu çalışmada bir bulanık çok kriterli karar verme yaklaşımı önerilmiştir. Bulanık sayılar dilsel ve kesin olmayan verilerin temsilinde kullanılmıştır. Ayrıca, önerilen yaklaşımda, bulanık AHP ve bulanık TOPSIS metodlarının birlikte kullanılması, güvenilir sonuçlar elde etmek ve sonuca mantıklı ve kolay hesaplanabilir bir yoldan gitmek için tercih edilmiştir. Önerilen yaklaşım kullanılarak bir uygulama yapılmıştır. Çalışmanın son bölümünde ise sonuç bölümüne yer verilmiştir.Software is in a wide variety of application areas in todays world and is essential for all kinds of businesses. Developing high quality software for business success is therefore prime importance. For ensuring software quality, software engineering project management needs to be in every stages of the life cycle. Lack of proper and sufficient software engineering project management cause the projects to fail, to have problems with time, budget and required features. However, the establishment of effective and efficient software project management practices still remains a challenge to software organizations. As software engineering project management needs planning, coordinating and controlling of whole development process, many decisions need to be made to guarantee the satisfaction of the stakeholders , requirements and goals, and help software engineers greatly to implement products or applications. In brief, decision making is an essential process that must be used in the software development process. In software engineering project management, one of the critical issues is the selection of the appropriate SLCM, which may affect the success of the project. All the stages of software development process is established due to the model selected, so SLCM selection is sufficient for enabling all the effort be used efficiently in all phases of the project life cycle. A fuzzy multi criteria decision making approach is proposed in the study, since fuzzy sets are inevitable in representing uncertainty, vagueness and human subjectivity. Fuzzy numbers are used for representing linguistic or uncertain data. Moreover, fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS are used together in the proposed approach for obtaining reliable results and reaching the result with logical and easy calculations. An application is done using the proposed method and a conclusion is given at the end of the study.Yüksek LisansM.Sc