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From: sgf0z@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Steven Glenn Fox)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: SE Terms Confusion
Message-ID: <1991Apr11.144028.20787@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 11 Apr 91 14:40:28 GMT
Sender: usenet@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU
Organization: University of Virginia
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Ireallyam: sgf0z

I have been fighting with some SE terms recently and
am looking for some help in defining them and how
they relate to each other.  The terms I am referring to are:

Software Quality (& Software Quality Assurance)
Software Risk
Software Testing
Verification and Validation
Software Reliability

To get the ball rolling, here are some of my observations:
1. Software Reliability is one component of Software Quality.
2..V&V is essentially synonymous to Software Testing.
3..Software Risk is the risk of a software project not
    being completed, e.g. not fulfilling its specifications?  
    Does this make it a component of Software Reliability?
4. Software Quality is measuring quantitatively the quality
    of a piece of software on a number of attributes as
    defined by the specific project.  These attributes often
    are similar across many projects.

Thanks.
------------------
Steven G. Fox				sgf0z@virginia.edu
University of Virginia			uunet!virginia!sgf0z
Department of Systems Engineering
Charlottesville, Va 22903		(804) 982-2073