Software Quality Assurance

Chapter 1 Software Quality Fundamentals

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• – use the correct terminology to discuss software quality issues;
• – identify the major categories of software errors;
• – understand the different viewpoints regarding software quality;
• – provide a definition of software quality assurance;
• – understand software business models as well as their respective risks.

1.1 Introduction

Software is developed, maintained, and used by people in a wide variety of situations. Students create software in their classes, enthusiasts become members of open-source development teams, and professionals develop software for diverse business fields from finance to aerospace. All these individual groups will have to address quality problems that arise in the software they are working with. This chapter will provide definitions for terminology and discuss the source of software errors and the choice of different software engineering practices depending on an organization's sector of business.

Every profession has a body of knowledge made up of generally accepted principles. In order to obtain more specific knowledge about a profession, one must either: (a) have completed a recognized curriculum or (b) have experience in the domain. For most software engineers, software quality knowledge and expertise is acquired in a hands-on fashion in various organizations. The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) [SWE 14] constitutes the first international ...