SOFTWARE QUALITY

ENGINEERING
Lecture 2
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 HADITH OF THE DAY

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 OVERVIEW
 Software project Roles
 Views as per Roles
 Quality Expectations of Roles
 Quality Framework
 FURPS Model
 GQM
 BOEHM Model

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 PEOPLE’S ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
 Different people would have different expectations based on
their roles and responsibilities
 we can divide the people into two broad groups:
 Consumers of software products or services
 customers, users

 can be extended to non-human

 Producers of software products

 anyone involved in managing, developing, marketing

and service of software products

 can be extended to third party participants for add on or

testing.

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 PEOPLE’S ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
 Consumers’ perspective→ External View
 who are more concerned with the external behavior
 Producers’ perspective→ Internal View
 because they are typically familiar with or at least aware of
various internal characteristic of the product
 In other words:
 External view mostly sees a software system as a black box
 Because one can observe its behavior but not see through inside

 Internal view mostly sees it as a white box

 Because one can see what is inside and how it works

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 QUALITY EXPECTATIONS
 Consumer side expectation
 Producer side expectation

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 CONSUMER SIDE EXPECTATIONS
 Two basic concepts
 Validation
 It performs the right functions as specified - fits the user’s needs

 Verification

 It performs these specified functions correctly - performs its

functions reliably
 Other Expectations:
 Usability: GUI based products, plug-and-play
 Interoperability: embedded systems (smooth operation and interaction
between the software and these non-human users)
 Safety: safety-critical systems

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 PRODUCER SIDE EXPECTATIONS
 Contractual Obligations: conform to product specifications or providing
services that conform to service agreement
 Software methodologies, languages, and tools: For product and service
managers, adherence to pre-selected software process and relevant
standards, proper choice of software methodologies, languages, and tools,
as well as other factors, related to quality.
 Producer quality views: people on the producer side, their different
concerns may also produce quality views and expectations different
 For example, usability and modifiability may be paramount for people
involved with software service, maintainability for maintenance
personnel, portability for third-party or software packaging service
providers, and profitability and customer value for product marketing

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 QUALITY STANDARDS AND
FRAMEWORKS
 Two approaches to software that can be followed to
ensure software quality:
 Process based: assurance of the process by which a product
is developed (ISO 9001, ISO 9000-3 provides guidelines for
the application of the ISO 9001)
 Product based: the evaluation of the quality of the end
product (ISO 9126).

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 QUALITY STANDARDS AND
FRAMEWORKS
 ISO 9126
 FURPS Model
 BOEHM Model

 GQM Model

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 ISO 9126

 ISO 9126 is the software product evaluation standard from

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
 ISO-9126 is the most influential one in the Software
Engineering community
 ISO-9126 provides a hierarchical framework for quality
definition, organized into quality characteristics and sub-
characteristic

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 ISO 9126

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 ISO 9126 WITH SUB CHARACTERISTICS

 Functionality: The functions are those that satisfy stated or implied

needs.
The sub-characteristics include:
 Suitability- to the user’s needs
 Accuracy- of results
 Interoperability- with other systems
 Security- against unintended access
 Reliability: Capability of software to maintain its level of performance
under stated conditions for a stated period of time.
The sub-characteristics include:
 Maturity- frequency of failures
 Fault Tolerance- performance in case of faults
 Recoverability- of functionality and data loss

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 ISO 9126 WITH SUB CHARACTERISTICS

 Usability: Effort needed for use.

The sub characteristics include:
 Understandability
 Learnability
 Operability
 Efficiency: Level of performance of the software and the
amount of resources used, under stated conditions.
The sub-characteristics include:
 Time behaviour
 Resource behaviour

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 ISO 9126 WITH SUB CHARACTERISTICS
 Maintainability: Effort needed to make specified
modifications.
The sub-characteristics include:
 Analyzability- effort for diagnosis
 Changeability- ease of modification
 Stability- after change
 Testability- effort required for testing after
change
 Portability: Ability of software to be transferred from one
environment to another.
The sub-characteristics include:
 Adaptability
 Installability
 Conformance
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 Replaceability
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 THE FURPS MODEL (1987)

 Hewlett-Packard developed a set of software quality factors that

make up its name FURPS.
 The FURPS model takes five characteristics of quality attributes:

Functionality, Usability, Reliability,

Performance , and Supportability.

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 THE FURPS MODEL (1987)

 When FURPS is used, two steps are considered: setting priorities

and defining quality attributes that can be measured.
 One disadvantage of this model is that it does not take into
account the software product’s portability.

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 THE BOEHM MODEL (1978)
 It represents a hierarchical structure of characteristics.
 Boehm model sees the view of software with general utility.
Utility from various dimensions.
 General utility is broken down into portability, utility and
maintainability.
 Utility is further broken down into reliability, efficiency and
human engineering.

 Maintainability is in turn broken down into testability,

understandability and modifiability.

 This model is presented in levels called primary uses,

intermediate construct and primitive constructs. 18

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 THE BOEHM MODEL (1978)

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 PERSPECTIVES OF BOEHM MODEL
 Perspectives :-
 Product revision (ability to change).
 Product transition (adaptability to new environments).
 Product operations (basic operational characteristics).

 Product revision:-
 Maintainability, the ability to find and fix a defect.
 Flexibility, the ability to make changes required as dictated by the
business.
 Testability, the ability to Validate the software requirements.

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 PERSPECTIVES OF BOEHM MODEL
 Product transition :- The product transition perspective
identifies quality factors that influence the ability to adapt the
software to new environments:-
 Portability, the ability to transfer the software from one

environment to another.
 Reusability, the ease of using existing software components
in a different context.
 Interoperability, the extent, or ease, to which software
components work together.

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 PERSPECTIVES OF BOEHM MODEL
 Product operations :- The product operations perspective
identifies quality factors that influence the extent to which the
software fulfils its specification:-
 Correctness, the functionality matches the specification.

 Reliability, the extent to which the system fails.

 Efficiency, system resource (including cpu, disk,
memory, network) usage.
 Integrity, protection from unauthorized access.
 Usability, ease of use.

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 GQM (GOAL, QUESTION, METRIC) BY
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING LAB AT THE NASA
 A measurement program can be more successful if designed
with the goals in mind
 „GQM approach provides a framework with 3 steps:
 List the major goals of the development / maintenance
project
 Derive from each goal the questions that must be
answered to determine if the goals are being met
 Decide what must be measured to answer the questions
adequately
 E.g. responsiveness of a website

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 GQM (GOAL, QUESTION, METRIC)

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 END OF LECTURE

THANK YOU !

QUESTIONS?

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