Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!emory!gatech!rutgers!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!qucis!dalamb
From: dalamb@qucis.queensu.CA (David Lamb)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: SQA (was: Re: The Software Process - Watts Humphrey.)
Message-ID: <976@qusunitg.queensu.CA>
Date: 25 Oct 90 16:07:23 GMT
References: <9150@fy.sei.cmu.edu>
Organization: Queen's University, Kingston
Lines: 54

In article <9150@fy.sei.cmu.edu> bwb@sei.cmu.edu (Bruce Benson) writes:
>Conclusion:  If you can define and measure quality well enough to
>create an effective SQA, then you can use these definitions and
>measures directly without an SQA.  In an improving organization,
>SQA and independent test will diminish in importance with time. If
>this is not happening, you are not improving.
>
There's an inherent tension between getting a product out by a deadline
(the bias of developers) and getting out a product with no defects (the
bias of SQA groups).  You want a separate SQA groups not so much
because they specialize in SQA as because they aren't the developers,
so don't have the developer's biases and mindset about the product.
There's a right way and a wrong way to introduce an SQA group:

Wrong:
			      -----------
			     | president |
			      -----------
	  ----------------                      --------
	 | VP Development |                    | VP SQA |
	  ----------------                      -------- 
	  /          \       ...                   /     \
  ------------    ------------          -----------    -----------
 | Project 1  |  | Project 2  | ...    | Project 1 |  | Project 2 | ...
 | Developers |  | Developers | ...    |   SQA     |  |   SQA     |
  ------------    ------------          -----------    -----------
There's no one to arbitrate the conflict between the goals of the developers
and the SQA.


Right:
                              -----------
                             | president |
                              -----------
			      .... (whatever other levels of company)
          -----------                          -----------
         | Project 1 |                        | Project 2 |
	 |  Manager  |                        |  Manager  |
          -----------                          -----------
         /        \                             /     \
 ------------    ------------         ------------     -----------
| Project 1  |  | Project 1 |        | Project 2  |   | Project 2 |    
| Developers |  |    SQA    |        | Developers |   |   SQA     |
 ------------    ------------         ------------     -----------

The manager's mission is to get out a high-quality product by a deadline, so
is the right one to balance "meet the deadline" against "don't let through
any defects."

David Alex Lamb			ARPA Internet:	David.Lamb@cs.cmu.edu
Department of Computing				dalamb@qucis.queensu.ca
    and Information Science	uucp:   	...!utzoo!utcsri!qucis!dalamb
Queen's University		phone:		(613) 545-6067
Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6