Software process quality and analysis method

Relative to the mature definition and classification of software product quality in ISO/IEC 9126, software process quality is a new research area. Current process models and standards, such as CMM and ISO 9001, don't provide an explicit definition of software process quality, and don't state the relationship between software process quality and software product quality. This paper tries to give an informal definition and corresponding attributes of software process quality. Statistical process control is an important technology to quantitatively measure software process. This paper analyzes shortcomings of Shewhart control chart (which can only distinguish common causes from assignable causes, cannot grasp interactions among different processes), divides assignable causes into process-inner assignable causes and process-outer assignable causes, and uses Select Cause Control chart to isolate interference from other processes. Then based on statistical process control technology, two kinds of process quality, Total Quality and Partial Quality, are defined. To facilitate the measurement of process quality and product quality, and establish the relationship between them, we define seven external attributes (functionality, usability, measurability, stability, reliability, maintainability, scalability) and corresponding sub-attributes of software process quality. Finally, this paper summarizes a diagnosis table, illustrating how to combine Shewhart control chart with Select Cause Control chart to identify variation sources that result in the variation of software process quality.Engineering, Electrical & ElectronicSCI(E)EI0ARTICLE2197-2001