September 2001
Volume 3 • Number 4

Contents

Overview

We are delighted to bring you a first for this journal: an interview with a leading software quality thinker. Associate Editor Beth Layman spoke with Jerry Weinberg (Members Only) about the state of the practice, technical leadership, and the future of software engineering. Their exchanges begin this issue of SQP, which marks its third full year of publication.

Patricia Rodríguez-Dapena considers the importance and difficulties of system requirements such as safety, reliability, reusability, and portability. How best to handle the specification, implementation, and assessment of such characteristics? "Nonfunctional Requirements as a Driving Force of Software Development" offers a management strategy for planning and tracking development activities that largely parallels developing functional aspects of software-intensive systems.

"Standards: Help, Hindrance, or Delusion? (Members Only)" is an editorial symposium coupled with a call for responses and submissions. Several members of SQP’s Editorial Board share observations based on their involvement in the development and use of consensus-based technical standards. SQP readers are invited to contribute to a continuation of this discussion.

In "Evolutionary Prototype Model for Web Projects (Members Only) " Phani Madhavi and Alice Jacob offer a method of system development done incrementally, with continuous modification based on end-user feedback. They recount details of the life cycle, the estimating and scheduling aspects, the measurements captured, and the risks faced and mitigated. Their approach addresses a litany of possible troubles, including unrealistic expectations, poor customer feedback mechanisms, system performance shortfalls, and feature creep.

The Resource Reviews section offers a wealth of insights about an unusually large range of books this issue: three on project management, five on software processes, one on testing, and three on quality management.

The annual indices provide navigational aids through the four issues published as volume 3 of SQP.

Software Quality Professional
Editorial/Production

Editor-in-Chief
Taz Daughtrey
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, Virginia
sqpeditor@aol.com

Associate Editors
Sue Carroll
SAS
Cary, North Carolina

Paul R. Croll
Computer Sciences Corporation
King George, Virginia

Beth Layman
Teraquest
Melbourne Beach, Florida

Stanley H. Levinson
Framatome ANP, Inc.
Lynchburg, Virginia

John Pustaver
SWQuality, Inc.
Sudbury, Massachusetts

Publisher
William Tony

Manuscript Coordinator
Dave Nelsen

Copy Editors
Leigh Ann Klaus
Kris McEachern

Production Administrator
Cathy Schnackenberg

Graphic Designer
Mary Uttech

Digital Production Specialists
Jen Czajka
Jill Zimmerman