The Critical Success Factors of Quality Assurance and Measurement Practice in the Software Industry

In this thesis I analyse how QA and measurement programmes are implemented in the software industry. My thesis is that, contrary to popular belief, how companies implement QA and measurement is as important to the ultimate success of a programme as what QA and measurement tools and techniques are implemented. I have combined input from over 300 software developers and managers in 26 different companies, with the analysis of all the relevant publicly available information on companies’ experiences to produce a definitive study into implementing QA and measurement in the software industry. In this study I: • identify those QA and measurement practices considered to be state-of-the-art; • quantify the penetration of state-of-the-art practices; • report on the state-of-the-practice; • assess the effectiveness of the state-of-the-practice; • present guidelines for improved practice. I tested a variety of hypotheses about implementing QA and measurement programmes. My key findings about these hypotheses include: • Some companies have a large gap between what is officially said to be implemented and what is actually implemented. • Practitioners had a significant impact on the success of programmes. Furthermore, I confirmed my hypotheses about managers and developers having different attitudes to QA and measurement. However, I was unable to find convincing evidence to confirm that the demographics of practitioners affected their attitudes. • Many of my hypotheses about the implementation process were confirmed. In particular I found that doing background research was related to success, but that very few companies did research. However, I was unable to find convincing evidence to confirm the importance of feedback to practitioners. Overall my study reveals that the quality of the implementation process across the software industry is, in practice, very poor. Indeed, I show that the gap between state-of-the-art and state-of-the practice is large. I conclude that until the software industry puts as much effort into developing strategies for implementing QA and measurement as it does into developing tools and techniques, then effective and optimised programmes will remain rare

The future of corporate reporting: a review article

Significant changes in the corporate external reporting environment have led to proposals for fundamental changes in corporate reporting practices. Recent influential reports by major organisations have suggested that a variety of new information types be reported, in particular forward-looking, non-financial and soft information. This paper presents a review and synthesis of these reports and provides a framework for classifying and describing suggested information types. The existence of academic antecedents for certain current proposals are identified and the ambiguous relationship between research and practice is explored. The implications for future academic research are discussed and a research agenda is introduced

The other GMP: good manufacturing practice and its importance in the validation of constructed pharmaceutical facilities

The work reported is part of an ongoing PhD study prompted by the particular difficulties encountered when two very different quality cultures interact (in this case Pharmaceutical industry clients and Construction industry providers). Pharmaceutical facilities have particular needs for their production requirements. Stringent regulations are set by regulatory bodies such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) (in the UK) and the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the US. This creates special problems of quality when it comes to the commissioning, validation and hand-over of the building, as it appears to be at odds with the rather less demanding quality systems that are normally accepted in the construction sector. The aim of the research is to model an acceptable process for incorporating these stringent validation requirements into the design, procurement and construction processes. There is little or no specific academic literature on the subject, though the trades and professional press (particularly in the USA) provide some normative comment on the problem area. The main academic grounding of the research is in Systems Theory and empirical data is being collecting using a multiple case study approach. Research data was collected from a number of pharmaceutical facility construction case studies and was used to test and inform a best practice model of facility validation. The qualitative methods of participant and direct observation were used as the main information gathering tools. The paper reports on the regulatory expectations that influence the construction of projects of this type and the impact on the best practice model of validation

Software reliability and dependability: a roadmap

Shifting the focus from software reliability to user-centred measures of dependability in complete software-based systems. Influencing design practice to facilitate dependability assessment. Propagating awareness of dependability issues and the use of existing, useful methods. Injecting some rigour in the use of process-related evidence for dependability assessment. Better understanding issues of diversity and variation as drivers of dependability. Bev Littlewood is founder-Director of the Centre for Software Reliability, and Professor of Software Engineering at City University, London. Prof Littlewood has worked for many years on problems associated with the modelling and evaluation of the dependability of software-based systems; he has published many papers in international journals and conference proceedings and has edited several books. Much of this work has been carried out in collaborative projects, including the successful EC-funded projects SHIP, PDCS, PDCS2, DeVa. He has been employed as a consultant t

Outsourcing and acquisition models comparison related to IT supplier selection decision analysis

This paper presents a comparison of acquisition models related to decision analysis of IT supplier selection. The main standards are: Capability Maturity Model Integration for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), ISO / IEC 12207 Information Technology / Software Life Cycle Processes, IEEE 1062 Recommended Practice for Software Acquisition, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide. The objective of this paper is to compare the previous models to find the advantages and disadvantages of them for the future development of a decision model for IT supplier selection

Process capability assessments in small development firms

[Abstract}: Assessment-based Software Process Improvement (SPI) programs such as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Bootstrap, and SPICE (ISO/IEC 15504) are based on formal frameworks and promote the use of systematic processes and management practices for software development. These approaches identify best practices for the management of software development and when applied, enable organizations to understand, control and improve development processes. The purpose of a SPI assessment is to compare the current processes used in an organization with a list of recommended or ‘best’ practices. This research investigates the adoption of SPI initiatives by four small software development firms. These four firms participated in a process improvement program which was sponsored by Software Engineering Australia (SEA) (Queensland). The assessment method was based on SPICE (ISO/IEC 15504) and included an initial assessment, recommendations, and a follow-up meeting. For each firm, before and after snapshots are provided of the capability as assessed on eight processes. The discussion which follows summarizes the improvements realized and considers the critical success factors relating to SPI adoption for small firms