Imran Khawar Bodla

Instructor Imran Khawar Bodla

Email ikbodla@hotmail.com

Class Session TBD

Communication Hours After class, via email, or by
appointment

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YOUR BACKGROUND

Name
Day Job or Equivalent
Final Project
Quality Experience
Industry Experience
Optional: Any thing else

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 EVALUATION COMPONENTS
Quizzes 3-5 5%
Assignments 3-5 10%
Project 15%
Mid 20%
Final 60%

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 TEXTBOOKS

Required Textbooks
“Software Quality Engineering: Testing,
Quality Assurance, and Quantifiable
Improvement”, by Jeff Tian

Reference:
1. “The Art of Software Testing” by Glenford
Myers
2. “Managing the Testing Process: Practical
Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware
and Software Testing”, by Rex Black

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COURSE INTRODUCTION

Course Code: SE-471

Credits: 3+0
Contact Hours: 3

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 COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Introduction to the concepts, philosophies, tools,
techniques, guidelines, and framework for software
quality assurance
• Verification and validation of software
• Measurement of quality, quality factors, quality costs
at different stages of software development lifecycle
• Software testing and usability evaluation methods
• Software quality standards

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 BUILDING THE RIGHT SYSTEM VS.
BUILDING THE SYSTEM RIGHT

Don’t Just Build the System Right, Build

the Right System:

Validation: Are we building

the right system?
Verification: Are we building
the system right?

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 COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Software Quality Engineering, which is organized into

three major topics:
• Software testing as a primary means to ensure software
quality;
• Other alternatives for quality assurance (QA), including
defect prevention, process improvement, inspection,
formal verification, fault tolerance, safety assurance, and
damage control;
• Measurement and analysis to close the feedback loop
for quality assessment and quantifiable improvement.

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 WHAT IS THIS COURSE ALL ABOUT
Computers and software systems are becoming ubiquitous
in modern society.

Worldwide users rely on individual and interconnected

computers to fulfill their needs for
 information processing,
 storage,
 search,
 and retrieval.
All these needs are met with the support of the underlying
software.

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 WHAT IS THIS COURSE ALL ABOUT

• This high quality need to be satisfied through

various Quality Assurance activities

• Claims for high quality need to be supported by

evidence based on concrete measurements and
analyses.

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ANY QUESTIONS
LECTURE OVERVIEW
• Course Introduction
• Course Objectives
• Course Contents
• Quality expectations
• An Initial Definition of (Software) Quality
• Standard Definitions of (Software) Quality
• Quality Problems in Large Software
• Turning Failure to Success: SQE
• SQE for Meeting Quality Expectations
• The SQE Process
• Scope of Major SQE Activities

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QUALITY EXPECTATIONS
Our (as developers) objective is to deliver
software system that...
does what it is supposed to do
 needs to be “validated“
does the things correctly
 needs to be “verified“
show/demonstrate/prove it
 modeling/analysis needed

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MEETING QUALITY EXPECTATIONS
Difficulties in achieving good quality:
 size: MLOC products common
 complexity
 environmental stress/constraints
 flexibility/adaptability expected

Other difficulties/factors:
 product type
 cost and market conditions
 Others .. (discussed in Part III of the book)

No silver bullet", but...

 SQE (software quality engineering) helps

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 OVERVIEW
• MEETING PEOPLE’S QUALITY EXPECTATIONS
• The software systems must do what they are supposed
to do. In other words, they must do the right things.
• They must perform these specific tasks correctly or
satisfactorily. In other words, they must do the things
right.

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OVERVIEW
• Main tasks for software quality engineering
• quality planning;
• execution of selected QA or software validation
and verification activities;
• measurement and analysis to provide convincing
evidence to demonstrate software quality to all
parties involved.

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AN INITIAL DEFINITION OF (SOFTWARE) QUALITY
Quality =
 ...meeting the customer’s requirements,
 ...at the agreed cost,
 ...within the agreed timescales.
Quality = “Fitness for purpose”
Quality = Customer satisfaction

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STANDARD DEFINITIONS OF (SOFTWARE)
QUALITY
IEEE Glossary: Degree to which a system, component, or
process meets (1) specified requirements, and (2)
customer or user needs or expectations

ISO 8402: The totality of features and

characteristics of a product or service that
bear on its ability to satisfy specified or
implied needs

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QUALITY PROBLEMS IN LARGE
SOFTWARE
Pervasive use of software
Growing reliance on software
Large software systems

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SOFTWARE FAILURES: THE STATISTICS

Cancelled
31%

Successful
16%

Challenged
53%

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 SOFTWARE FAILURES: COST OVERRUNS
Overrun Amount % cases
Under 20% 15.5%
21 - 50% 31.5%
51 - 100% 29.6%
101 - 200% 10.2%
201 - 400% 8.8%
Over 400% 4.4%

Average cost for “failed” projects is 189% of the original estimate, i.e.
almost double.
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 SOFTWARE FAILURES: TIME OVERRUNS
Overrun Amount % cases
Under 20% 13.9%
21 - 50% 18.3%
51 - 100% 20.0%
101 - 200% 35.5%
201 - 400% 11.2%
Over 400% 1.1%
Average time for “failed” projects is 222% of original estimate, i.e.
more than double.
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 SOFTWARE FAILURES: CONTENT
DEFICIENCIES
Under 25% 4.6%
25 – 49% 27.2%
50 – 74% 21.8%
75 – 99% 39.1%
100% 7.3%

On average “challenged” projects deliver 61% of specified functions

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TURNING FAILURE TO SUCCESS:
SQE
Failure Failure

Success

Scope / Content

Failure

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SQE FOR MEETING QUALITY
EXPECTATIONS
Expectations for quality and reliability
 Validation: software systems must do what they are
supposed to do
 Verification: must perform these tasks correctly, without
problems
 Measurement/analysis: supported by evidence based
on concrete measurements

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THE SQE PROCESS
1. Quality planning: plans assure that
– Software development, evaluation, and acceptance standards are
developed, documented and followed
– The results of quality reviews are given to appropriate management
– That test results adhere to acceptance standards
2. Software testing as the primary means to ensure
quality
3. Other alternatives for quality assurance (QA) e.g.
defect prevention, process improvement, inspection,
formal verification, fault tolerance, safety assurance,
and damage control
4. Measurement and analysis to close the feedback
loop for assessment and quantifiable improvement

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 THE SQE PROCESS
• This is the general subject of Software Quality
Engineering, which is organized into three Major
topics:
• Software testing as a primary means to ensure software
quality;
• Other alternatives for quality assurance (QA), including
defect prevention, process improvement, inspection, formal
verification, fault tolerance, safety assurance, and damage
control;
• Measurement and analysis to close the feedback loop for
quality assessment and quantifiable improvement.

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SCOPE OF MAJOR SQE ACTIVITIES

Software Quality Engineering

Quality Assurance

Testing

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SOFTWARE FAILURES: SOME FAMOUS EXAMPLES

Taurus (London Stock Exchange)

11 years late & 13,200% over budget
London Ambulance Service
 faults led to reversion to manual processes
NHS Service
2008 was the start date, still not finished!

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 IN CLASS ACTIVITY #1
(TAKE 5 TO 10 MINS TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS)

Your experience as a developer

 What programming experience do you have? (e.g.
course project, internship ... Etc.)
 What language did you use?
 What level of quality you think it had?
 How did you assure it’s quality?

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 IN CLASS ACTIVITY #2
(TAKE 5 TO 10 MINS TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS)

Your experience as a customer

What software do you use and think it is a good
software?
Why do you think it’s good?
Looks good, fast, accurate … etc.
How did you measure it’s goodness?
Can you compare it to other similar software?

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 IN CLASS ACTIVITY #3
(TAKE 5 TO 10 MINS TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS)

Your experience in management

 Did you work in a team for developing a software before?
What was it?
 What was your role in the team?
 Was there any team member responsible for QA?
 How did you divide QA tasks amongst team members?
 What can you do to enhance management of your team
with regards to QA activities?

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 YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

What do you expect to learn in

this course?

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