The Software Quality System

Quality factors are grouped in a system called a quality system, or quality management system.

Our quality management system consists of the management defined structure, responsibilities, activities, capabilities and resources to ensure that the developed software products have the required quality.

The quality management system encompasses the following activities:

- reviews of the projects’ qualities
- continual development of standards and procedures to better project quality

The Quality Assurance Plan

The plan focuses on the following:

(1) Documented software requirements specification: Documenting established specifications provides a baseline for verification testing and validation.

(2) Focus on defect prevention: At 8 we avoid relying on testing software code after it is written. Instead, software quality assurance should focus on preventing introduction of defects. Because software testing, alone, is not sufficient to establish software confidence, developers should use a mixture of methods appropriate to the development environment.

(3) Planning: Preparation for software validation should begin during design and development planning. A conclusion that software has been validated requires planned efforts throughout the software lifecycle.

(5) Validation plan: The process of software validation is defined and controlled through a plan that specifies "what" is to be accomplished through the validation effort. Software validation plans specify areas such as scope, approach, resources, schedules, activities, tasks, and work items.

(6) Validation procedures: These procedures establish "how" the software validation effort is conducted, specifying the content and sequence of validation activities.