A definition of software process quality based on statistical process control

Software process improvement has gained added significance in both industry and academe over the last few years. Compared to multitudinous definitions of software product quality, the research on software process quality is almost blank. Relying on statistical process control (SPC) techniques, this paper defines Total Quality and Partial Quality of software processes, summarizes seven attributes of software process quality, divides assignable causes into process-inner assignable causes and process-outer assignable causes, and uses Shewhart control charts and Select Cause Control (SCC) charts to analyze the quality of a specific process. Experiences show that the work in the paper can strengthen the understandability of software process improvement, and establish the relationship between software process quality and software product quality that is not well addressed in popular process models, such as CMM. ? 2005 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.EI