UNIT – 7 Quality Assurance and Management

1.What is the importance of SQA? Explain the SQA activities.

Answer:-
The importance of SQA

1. It saves time and money. Software quality assurance ensures that the developers find
bugs and errors at the early stages of software development. Therefore, they spend a lot
less time and money fixing them.
2. Stable and competitive software product. Software architects specifically vet each
block in the software development process against industry standards.
Granular testing for different requirements like reliability, functionality, usability,
portability, etc., helps ensure that their product is high-quality.
3. Protects your company’s reputation. Businesses need to ensure that their product
works as intended before releasing into the market. If the customers notice the product’s
errors before you do, it will significantly impact your brand image and reputation.
4. Ensures security. Software quality assurance helps organizations ensure that their
application is efficient, secure, and trustworthy.
5. Customer satisfaction. Your software application has to ful-fill all the needs to satisfy
the customers. It has to work smoothly without any malfunctions. With software quality
assurance processes in place, you can ensure that your product delivers everything that
your audience expects.

SQA Activities

Software quality assurance is composed of a variety of functions associated with two different
constituencies? the software engineers who do technical work and an SQA group that has
responsibility for quality assurance planning, record keeping, analysis, and reporting.

Following activities are performed by an independent SQA group:

1. Prepares an SQA plan for a project: The program is developed during project
planning and is reviewed by all stakeholders. The plan governs quality assurance
activities performed by the software engineering team and the SQA group. The plan
identifies calculation to be performed, audits and reviews to be performed, standards
that apply to the project, techniques for error reporting and tracking, documents to be
produced by the SQA team, and amount of feedback provided to the software project
team.
2. Participates in the development of the project's software process description: The
software team selects a process for the work to be performed. The SQA group reviews
the process description for compliance with organizational policy, internal software
 standards, externally imposed standards (e.g. ISO-9001), and other parts of the software
project plan.
3. Reviews software engineering activities to verify compliance with the defined
software process: The SQA group identifies, reports, and tracks deviations from the
process and verifies that corrections have been made.
4. Audits designated software work products to verify compliance with those defined
as a part of the software process: The SQA group reviews selected work products,
identifies, documents and tracks deviations, verify that corrections have been made,
and periodically reports the results of its work to the project manager.
5. Ensures that deviations in software work and work products are documented and
handled according to a documented procedure: Deviations may be encountered in
the project method, process description, applicable standards, or technical work
products.
6. Records any noncompliance and reports to senior management: Non- compliance
items are tracked until they are resolved.

2.Compare quality control with quality assurance. OR Differentiate between

Quality Assurance & Quality Control.

Answer:-

What is Quality Assurance (QA)?

Quality Assurance is popularly known as QA Testing, is defined as an activity to ensure that
an organization is providing the best possible product or service to customers.

What is Quality Control (QC)?

Quality Control in Software Testing is a systematic set of processes used to ensure the quality
of software products or services. The main purpose of the quality control process is ensuring
that the software product meets the actual requirements by testing and reviewing its functional
and non-functional requirements. Quality control is popularly abbreviated as QC.
Difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Quality Assurance (QA) Quality Control (QC)

It is a procedure that focuses on providing It is a procedure that focuses on fulfilling the quality
assurance that quality requested will be achieved requested.

QA aims to prevent the defect QC aims to identify and fix defects

It is a method to manage the quality- Verification It is a method to verify the quality-Validation

It does not involve executing the program It always involves executing a program

It’s a Preventive technique It’s a Corrective technique

It’s a Proactive measure It’s a Reactive measure

It is the procedure to create the deliverables It is the procedure to verify that deliverables

QA involves in full software development life

QC involves in full software testing life cycle
cycle

In order to meet the customer requirements, QA QC confirms that the standards are followed while
defines standards and methodologies working on the product

It is performed before Quality Control It is performed only after QA activity is done

It is a Low-Level Activity, it can identify an error It is a High-Level Activity, it can identify an error
and mistakes which QC cannot that QA cannot

Its main motive is to prevent defects in the system. Its main motive is to identify defects or bugs in the
It is a less time-consuming activity system. It is a more time-consuming activity

QA ensures that everything is executed in the right QC ensures that whatever we have done is as per the
way, and that is why it falls under verification requirement, and that is why it falls under validation
activity activity

It requires the involvement of the whole team It requires the involvement of the Testing team

The statistical technique applied on QA is known The statistical technique applied to QC is known as
as SPC or Statistical Process Control (SPC) SQC or Statistical Quality Control

3.List Quality Standards. Explain any one.

Answer:-
Quality - developed product meets it’s specification
List of Quality Standards

• ISO 9000
• CMM
 • Six Sigma for SE
• SQA Plan

CMM (Capability Maturity Model)

(Figure: five process maturity levels)

• To determine an organization’s current state of process maturity, the SEI (Software

Engineering Institute) uses an assessment that results in a five point grading scheme
• The grading scheme determines compliance with a capability maturity model (CMM)
that defines key activities required at different levels of process maturity
• The SEI approach establishes five process maturity levels that are defined in the
following manner
• Level 1: Initial
o The software process is characterized as ad hoc and occasionally
o Few processes are defined and success depends on individual effort
• Level 2: Repeatable
o Basic project management processes are established to track cost, schedule, and
functionality.
o The necessary process discipline is in place to repeat earlier successes on Project
• Level 3: Defined
o The software process for both management and engineering activities is
documented, standardized and integrated
o This level includes all characteristics defined for level 2
• Level 4: Managed
o Detailed measures of the software process and product quality are collected
o This level includes all characteristics defined for level 3
• Level 5: Optimizing
o Continuous process improvement is enabled by quantitative feedback from the
process and from testing innovative ideas and technologies
o This level includes all characteristics defined for level 4
4.Write short note on Six Sigma standard.

Answer:-
Six Sigma

Six Sigma is the process of improving the quality of the output by identifying and eliminating
the cause of defects and reduce variability in manufacturing and business processes. The
maturity of a manufacturing process can be defined by a sigma rating indicating its percentage
of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma method is one in which 99.99966% of all the
opportunities to produce some features of a component are statistically expected to be free of
defects (3.4 defective features per million opportunities).

Characteristics of Six Sigma

The Characteristics of Six Sigma are as follows:

1. Statistical Quality Control: Six Sigma is derived from the Greek Letter σ (Sigma)
from the Greek alphabet, which is used to denote Standard Deviation in statistics.
Standard Deviation is used to measure variance, which is an essential tool for measuring
non-conformance as far as the quality of output is concerned.
2. Methodical Approach: The Six Sigma is not a merely quality improvement strategy
in theory, as it features a well defined systematic approach of application in DMAIC
and DMADV which can be used to improve the quality of production. DMAIC is an
acronym for Design-Measure- Analyze-Improve-Control. The alternative method
DMADV stands for Design-Measure- Analyze-Design-Verify.
3. Fact and Data-Based Approach: The statistical and methodical aspect of Six Sigma
shows the scientific basis of the technique. This accentuates essential elements of the
Six Sigma that is a fact and data-based.
4. Project and Objective-Based Focus: The Six Sigma process is implemented for an
organization's project tailored to its specification and requirements. The process is
flexed to suits the requirements and conditions in which the projects are operating to
get the best results.
5. Customer Focus: The customer focus is fundamental to the Six Sigma approach. The
quality improvement and control standards are based on specific customer
requirements.
 6. Teamwork Approach to Quality Management: The Six Sigma process requires
organizations to get organized when it comes to controlling and improving quality. Six
Sigma involving a lot of training depending on the role of an individual in the Quality
Management team.

Six Sigma Methodologies

Six Sigma projects follow two project methodologies:

1. DMAIC
2. DMADV

DMAIC

It specifies a data-driven quality strategy for improving processes. This methodology is used
to enhance an existing business process.

The DMAIC project methodology has five phases:

 1. Define: It covers the process mapping and flow-charting, project charter development,
problem-solving tools, and so-called 7-M tools.
2. Measure: It includes the principles of measurement, continuous and discrete data, and
scales of measurement, an overview of the principle of variations and repeatability and
reproducibility (RR) studies for continuous and discrete data.
3. Analyze: It covers establishing a process baseline, how to determine process
improvement goals, knowledge discovery, including descriptive and exploratory data
analysis and data mining tools, the basic principle of Statistical Process Control (SPC),
specialized control charts, process capability analysis, correlation and regression
analysis, analysis of categorical data, and non-parametric statistical methods.
4. Improve: It covers project management, risk assessment, process simulation, and
design of experiments (DOE), robust design concepts, and process optimization.
5. Control: It covers process control planning, using SPC for operational control and
PRE-Control.

DMADV

It specifies a data-driven quality strategy for designing products and processes. This method is
used to create new product designs or process designs in such a way that it results in a more
predictable, mature, and detect free performance.

The DMADV project methodology has five phases:

 1. Define: It defines the problem or project goal that needs to be addressed.
2. Measure: It measures and determines the customer's needs and specifications.
3. Analyze: It analyzes the process to meet customer needs.
4. Design: It can design a process that will meet customer needs.
5. Verify: It can verify the design performance and ability to meet customer needs

5.What do you mean by Quality for a software? Enlist and explain SQA
activities in brief.

Answer:-
Quality for a software

• Software quality is the degree of conformance to explicit or implicit requirements and

expectations.
• Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a set of activities for ensuring quality in software
engineering processes. It ensures that developed software meets and complies with the
defined or standardized quality specifications.
• SQA is an ongoing process within the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) that
routinely checks the developed software to ensure it meets the desired quality measures.
SQA activities

• Prepare an SQA plan for a project

o The plan is developed as part of project planning and is reviewed by all
stakeholders.
o Quality assurance actions performed by the software engineering team and the
SQA group are governed by the plan.
o The plan identifies evaluations to be performed, audits and reviews to be
conducted, standards that are applicable to the project, procedures for error
reporting and tracking, work products that are produced by the SQA group, and
feedback that will be provided to the software team.

• Participate in the development of the project’s software process description

o The software team selects a process for the work to be performed.
o The SQA group reviews the process description for compliance with
organizational policy, internal software standards, externally imposed
standards, and other parts of the software project plan.

• Review software engineering activities to verify compliance with the defined software
process.
o The SQA group identifies, documents, and tracks deviations from the process
and verifies that corrections have been made.

• Audit designated software work products to verify compliance with those defined as
part of the software process
o The SQA group reviews selected work products; identifies, documents, and
tracks deviations; verifies that corrections have been made; and periodically
reports the results of its work to the project manager.

• Ensure that deviations in software work and work products are documented and handled
according to a documented procedure.
o Deviations may be encountered in the project plan, process description,
applicable standards, or software engineering work products.

• Records any noncompliance and reports to senior management

o Noncompliance items are tracked until they are resolved.