Software Quality

Chapter 19Improvement Processes – Corrective and Preventive Actions

Continual Improvement Requirement

“The organization shall continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system through the use of the quality policy, quality objectives, audit results, analysis of data, corrective and preventing actions and movement review”.

ISO/IEC Std. 90003-2014 Sec. 8.5.1

Continual improvement, in other words, ongoing improvement of overall performance, is also a basic principle of software quality assurance. The issues involved in successful implementation of this principle by corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) are discussed in this chapter.

19.1 The “3S” Development Team – Revisited – an Introductory Mini Case

The project for Apollo Ltd. (discussed in Chapter 23) that was completed by Team 7 has now been operative for about 7 months. With its previous experience in mind, the development department's manager decided that the causes of the team's difficulties should be analyzed, and while all conclusions reached should be implemented by Team 7, some should be implemented department wide.

Participants at the meeting organized by the department manager included Team 7's team leader, head of the SQA unit, and head of the human Resources Department. The objective of the meeting was defined by the participants: “To detect systematic causes for the improper performance of Team 7, and to devise measures to prevent their recurrence.” Amongst topics raised were the cancellation ...