March 2003
Volume 5 • Number 2

Contents

Overview

Wayne Woodruff and Ron Pisechko share their experiences on "Efficient Test Planning and Tracking (Members Only)." Key elements: an emphasis on metrics and the use of a requirements management tool and of a spreadsheet to record and report status information. These closed-loop test development and execution processes facilitated communication with all stakeholders, a high degree of predictability, and ease in drilling down to details of tests that fail.

"Using Capture-Recapture Models for the Reinspection Decision," by Julie Barnard, Khaled El Emam, and Dave Zubrow, describes an empirically confirmed model that yielded significant improvement in deciding whether to reinspect software development products. Based on a technique used to estimate wildlife populations, this approach estimates the number of remaining defects in an inspected item. Requiring no additional data to be collected, the method helps focus appraisal efforts where most needed.

Giora Ben-Yaacov, Pramod Suratkar, Marsha Holliday, and Karen Bartleson report on "“Continuous Quality Improvements at a Silicon Valley High-Tech Software Company (Members Only)." They describe how their quality management system was effective in driving quality improvements within the highly competitive market for electronic design automation tools. The article provides real-life examples of how this data-driven approach contributed to significant internal improvements and customer satisfaction.

In "Bridging Between Software Management and Software Professionalism (Members Only)," Dave Miller strives to properly balance organizational goals and encouragement of individual professionalism. He claims that techniques for managing professionals can be appropriately applied by considering their characteristic values. Miller shows that quality practitioners can effectively lead software developers to support organizational goals by mastering mediation skills and by demonstrating professional behaviors themselves.

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
Oracle Corp.
Burlington, 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
Laura Franceschi

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