Re: Quality systems (Was: Using Ada for device drivers? (Was: the Ada mandate, and why it collapsed and died))

[xanthian@well.com (Kent Paul Dolan)]

"John R. Strohm" <strohm@airmail.net> wrote:
> "Willard Thompson" <need_more_spam@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> One big question that no one knows the exact answer to is
>> how exactly does the software process quality lead to
>> software product quality?  We most certainly know that
>> process quality affects product quality, that is obvious.
>> To attempt to answer such a question, I think would
>> require mountains of formal and rigorous process
>> documentation over the life time of many projects for
>> tracking/comparing purposes, which is only half the
>> battle.  I think the other half is maintenance, to be
>> able to trace a newly discovered bug back via the
>> documented development process to properly identify not
>> only the exact location in code but abstraction and
>> reasoning as well.

> That is PRECISELY what the higher levels of the Capability
> Maturity Model are all about.  Part of what you are doing
> at the higher levels is tracking defect causes, and
> adapting the ongoing software process to kill the process
> errors that allowed the defects to happen and escape
> immediate detection.

Nuts, I sat up all night, and you _still_ beat me to that
answer! <grin>

Let me just add that the Software Engineering Institute's
Capability Maturity Model text (the formal title is longer
than that), and the subsequent white papers and refereed
journal articles showing the results of following it, and
giving more in-detail "how it works in the shop" data,
should be a part of any serious programmer's knowledge base,
just to understand what is _possible_ with continuous
process improvement programs in the software development
field, and with luck to start practicing it.

xanthian, who lent his copy to a friend, then got canned and
never saw it again: next time, for sure, I chain it to my
desk at the same time I nail my shoes to the floor.