Software quality assurance (SQA) is a means and practice of monitoring all
software engineering
Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development.
A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...
processes
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
*Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...
, methods, and work products to ensure compliance against defined standards. It may include ensuring conformance to standards or models, such as
ISO/IEC 9126 (now superseded by ISO 25010),
SPICE
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...
or
CMMI
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process level improvement training and appraisal program. Administered by the CMMI Institute, a subsidiary of ISACA, it was developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). It is required by many U ...
.
It includes standards and procedures that managers, administrators or developers may use to review and audit software products and activities to verify that the software meets quality criteria which link to standards.
SQA encompasses the entire
software development
Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invo ...
process, including
requirements engineering
Requirements engineering (RE) is the process of defining, documenting, and maintaining requirements in the engineering design process. It is a common role in systems engineering and software engineering.
The first use of the term ''requirem ...
,
software design
Software design is the process by which an agent creates a specification of a software artifact intended to accomplish goals, using a set of primitive components and subject to constraints. Software design may refer to either "all the activi ...
,
coding,
code review
Code review (sometimes referred to as peer review) is a software quality assurance activity in which one or several people check a program mainly by viewing and reading parts of its source code, and they do so after implementation or as an inter ...
s,
source code control,
software configuration management
In software engineering, software configuration management (SCM or S/W CM) is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger cross-disciplinary field of configuration management. SCM practices include revisio ...
,
testing
An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...
,
release management
Release management is the process of managing, planning, scheduling and controlling a software build through different stages and environments; it includes testing and deploying software releases.
Relationship with processes
Organizations that ...
and
software integration
System integration is defined in engineering as the process of bringing together the component sub- systems into one system (an aggregation of subsystems cooperating so that the system is able to deliver the overarching functionality) and ensurin ...
. It is organized into goals, commitments, abilities, activities, measurements,
verification and validation
Verification and validation (also abbreviated as V&V) are independent procedures that are used together for checking that a product, service, or system meets requirements and specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. These are ...
.
Purpose
SQA involves a three-pronged approach:
* Organization-wide policies, procedures and standards
* Project-specific policies, procedures and standards
* Compliance to appropriate procedures
Guidelines for the application of ISO 9001:2015 to computer software are described in ISO/IEC/IEEE 90003:2018. External entities can be contracted as part of process assessments to verify that projects are standard-compliant. More specifically in case of software,
ISO/IEC 9126 (now superseded by ISO 25010) should be considered and applied for software quality.
Activities
Quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...
activities take place at each phase of development. Analysts use application technology and techniques to achieve high-quality specifications and designs, such as
model-driven design. Engineers and technicians find bugs and problems with related software quality through testing activities. Standards and process deviations are identified and addressed throughout development by
project manager
A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined ...
s or quality managers, who also ensure that changes to functionality, performance, features, architecture and component (''in general:'' changes to product or service
scope
Scope or scopes may refer to:
People with the surname
* Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer
* John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution
Arts, media, and entertainment
* Cinema ...
) are made only after appropriate review, e.g. as part of
change control board
In software development, projects and programs, a change control board (CCB) is a committee that consists of Subject Matter Experts (''SME'', e.g. software engineers, testing experts, etc.) and Managers (e.g. Quality Assurance managers), who decide ...
s.
See also
*
DOD-STD-2167
The terms "DOD-STD-2167" and "DOD-STD-2168" (often mistakenly referred to as "MIL-STD-2167" and "MIL-STD-2168" respectively) are the official specification numbers for superseded U.S. DoD military standards describing documents and procedures req ...
*
Quality by Design
*
Software assurance
Software assurance (SwA) is defined as "the level of confidence that software is free from vulnerabilities, either intentionally designed into the software or accidentally inserted at any time during its lifecycle, and that the software functions ...
*
Software quality analyst A software quality assurance (QA) analyst, also referred to as a software quality analyst or simply a quality assurance (QA) analyst, is an individual who is responsible for applying the principles and practices of software quality assurance through ...
*
Software quality management
Software quality management (SQM) is a management process that aims to develop and manage the Software quality, quality of software in such a way so as to best ensure that the product meets the quality standards expected by the customer while also ...
*
Software testing
Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...
References
External links
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* "Software Quality Assurance(SQA): Plan, Audit & Review." ''Meet Guru99 – Free Training Tutorials & Video for IT Courses'', www.guru99.com/software-quality-assurance-test-audit-review-makes-your-life-easy.html.
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{{IEEE standards
Quality
Quality assurance
Software quality
IEEE standards