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CMM: The Road Not Taken

This article discusses the successful aspects of process improvement efforts that are not explicitly addressed by the CMM, but which are critical in achieving business and process improvement goals. It also summarizes the lessons learned by an organization that matured with these practices.
Shiva Kumar
October 11, 2001
Starting a Metrics Program

This article explains a set of six metrics, which collectively provide valuable insight into:

a) Effort variation
b) Assessing the organizational capability
c) Knowing how well the organization meets its commitments on time
d) Defect detection capability of QA&QC activities, hence control on price of conformance
e) Defect leakage across the phases of projects, organization wide
f) Productivity metrics - a sure input to scheduling

These six metrics are easy to understand and implement. The cost of implementation will be minimal, if the basic systems like time tracking and defect tracking systems are in place, and the organization follows a standard method for project size estimation.
Abrachan Pudussery's picture Abrachan Pudussery
October 10, 2001
A Comparison of IBM's Orthogonal Defect Classification to Hewlett Packard's Defect Origins, Types, and Modes

In the last three years, the author has worked with seven Software Development teams to help them categorize defects using Hewlett Packard's Defect Origins, Types, and Modes. More recently, the author has assisted a software testing and development organization analyze the results of defects categorized using IBM's Orthogonal Defect Classification (ODC).
John Huber
September 28, 2001
How Did I Get So Jaded?

Churning out medium-grade software to meet deadlines, and experiencing critically defective projects over the years, can easily wear down optimism till it gives way to cynicism in the software testing and quality professions. In this column, Eileen Strider empathizes with that tendency and offers ideas that may improve the quality of your experience.
Eileen Strider
September 24, 2001
Removing Requirement Defects and Automating Test

Organizations face many problems that impede rapid development of software systems critical to their operations and growth. This paper discusses model-based
development and test automation methods that reduce the time and resources necessary to develop high quality systems. The focus is how organizations have implemented this approach of model-based verification to reduce requirements defects, manual test development effort, and development rework to achieve significant cost and schedule savings.
Mark Blackburn
September 19, 2001
Designing an Automated Web Test Environment

This paper offers an alternative to the typical automated test scripting method of "record and playback now and enhance the automation environment later." It explores a regression automation system design for testing Internet applications through the GUI, along with scripting techniques to enhance the scalability and flexibility of an automated test suite. This paper will present a basic
structure for an automated test environment, and will expand on each of the items found in that structure. Web testing levels will be laid out, along with a basic approach to designing test scripts based on those Web-testing levels.
Dion Johnson's picture Dion Johnson
September 7, 2001
When Test Drives the Development Bus

Having finished our last project, which ended as a fire drill as usual, the managers of development and test concluded that we didn't ever want to go through that again. All agreed the test team had been riding the development cycle bus long enough.
Cindy Necaise
August 23, 2001
How to Jump-Start Inspection by Outsourcing

Even though the benefits of inspection have been extensively documented, you may find it hard to introduce this practice into your development process. A novel approach to finding defects, an outsourced software inspection service is easier to introduce and has successfully jump-started inspection in the software development organizations of major telecommunications and industrial process companies.
Jasper Kamperman
August 23, 2001
Configuration Management for Distributed Development

Configuration Management (CM) includes synchronizing and supporting developers in their common development and maintenance of a system. In order to utilize skilled personnel despite geographical location, groups of developers are now working all over the world on the development of common systems, a situation called distributed development. This article discusses the different cases and architectures with respect to distributed development and their demands on Configuration Management Tools. It also presents the features of some currently available CM tools that support Distributed Development.
Nina RajKumar
August 7, 2001
Enterprise Strategy for Nurturing Reusable Components

This paper explains how to identify good reusable components and describes a strategy for maintaining reusable components.
VijayShankar Athmalingam
August 7, 2001

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