September 2002
Volume 4 • Number 4
Contents
QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Selecting Tools for Software Quality Management
APPENDIX: TOOLS EVALUATED
The tools selected for evaluation were: EssentialSET®,
Estimate Professional®, GQMaspect®, IQUAL®, MetriFlame®,
Quality Builder®, SQUID®, The Defect Detective®
and THESEUS®.
A brief description of each tool is presented here, based
on each vendor’s own claims about its product.
EssentialSET
EssentialSET® understands a group of tools that provide
a framework for the software development key practices. The
complete group of tools includes material that covers disciplines
such as business planning, projects management, software development,
maintenance and software operation, quality assurance, requirements
management, configuration management, processes definition
and improvement, change management, projects control and monitor,
projects closing, and revision.
Software Productivity Center Inc. 2000. Essential SET.
Available from World Wide Web: http://www.spc.ca/products/eset/index.htm
Estimate Professional
Estimate Professional® eliminates all projects conjecture
and uncertainty. It recognizes the natural volatility in software
development and variability using the Monte Carlo simulation.
This is the only management tool that combines the estimation
models (COCOMO 2.0 and the Putnam Methodology) with statistical
methods to show how the success probabilities can be maximized.
Software Productivity Center Inc. 2000. Estimate Professional.
Available from World Wide Web: http://www.spc.ca/products/estimate/index.htm
GQMaspect
GQMaspect® (GQM Abstraction Sheet and GQM Plan Editing
and Construction Tool) is a prototype that implements state-of-the-art
processes and serves as support to the phase of planning of
the measuring of programs based on the goal question metrics
(GQM) paradigm.
Hoffmann M., Birk, A., Els, F., and Kempkens, R. 1996. GQMaspect
v.1.0. User Manual.
Integrated QUALity (IQUAL)
IQUAL® was created by Two Consult to integrate all the
aspects and critical activities that understand the modern
quality management and the handling of the derived documentation
of the application of ISO 9000. IQUAL® understands eight
functional units or modules: management of processes, management
of documentation, audits, nonconformity and corrective actions,
calibration, meetings of quality revision, quality results,
and work projects and groups.
Two Consult IQUAL. 1999. The Comprehensive Tool for Integrated
Quality Management. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.twoconsult.com/twoconsult/website.nsf/v0/snapshot.htm*
MetriFlame
The process of goals refinement uses questions to translate
them to metrics. It is documented in a goal question metrics
(GQM) plan. MetriFlame® uses the GQM paradigm to define
metrics; therefore, its constituent parts (goals, questions,
and metrics) can be fed into the system, and the results of
the metrics can be examined (question by question or goal
by goal). MetriFlame supports the GQM paradigm to gather data
for measuring, to define and to calculate metric, and to analyze
the results of the metric representing them in graphic form.
VTT Electronics. 1999. MetriFlame User Guide. Available
from World Wide Web: http://www.vtt.fi/ele/research/soh/products/metriflame
Quality Builder: A Quality Management Tool
Quality Builder is a tool to implement quality programs into
the whole organization. It helps organizations introduce quality
improvements and offer quality assurance improvement, besides
producing appraisal results. Quality Builder® understands
a group of processes that promote the quality practices, it
leans in a software based on Internet/intranet, and it uses
workflow and database technologies.
MCD, Human and Organizational Development Consultants. 1997.
Quality Builder. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.mcd.uk.com/pages/qualbuild.htm*
Software QUality In Development (SQUID)
SQUID® is a method and tool for quality assurance and
control that allows a software development organization to
plan and control the product quality during development. SQUID®
was developed to satisfy the necessity of comparison of projects
with similar characteristics. SQUID® makes it possible
to control and assure the product and the process quality,
which is carried out according to the necessities of each
organization and is based on its own database.
Bøegh, J., S. Depanfilis, B. Kitchenham, and A. Pasquini.
1999. A method for software quality planning, control and
evaluation. IEEE Software 16: 69-77.
The Defect Detective
The Defect Detective® tool provides a combination of
capacities to manage the quality processes through the life
cycle of complete development, from the requirements until
the implementation. The tool supports important elements of
the SEI/CMM, ISO 9000, and SPICE, relating product quality
with process quality.
Information Technology Effectiveness, Inc. 1998. The Defect
Detective.
Theseus
THESEUS is a management tool created to provide quality to
the systems with conformity to ISO 9001 and SPICE. This tool
is one of the products of “AMPLI Programme.” THESEUS
is formed by THESEUS*Management and THESEUS*Broadcast. The
first allows coding procedures and guides, work descriptions,
documents models, and so on. The data are stored in a relational
database to be used with THESEUS*Broadcast, which is based
on Internet/extranet technology, and it assures that the quality
manuals circulate throughout the organization.
Ariane II Group. 2000. Theseus.
*These links are now inactive; they were active at the
time of the manuscript's submission.
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