Software quality assurance

Software quality assurance (SQA) is a planned and systematic set of activities that gives confidence that the software process and the software product meet their stated quality requirements. It is an "umbrella activity" applied throughout the whole software process, not only at the end.

SQA covers (Pressman):

1. An SQA process and plan for the project.
2. Quality assurance and quality control tasks, such as technical reviews and a multi-tiered testing strategy.
3. Effective software engineering practice (methods and tools).
4. Control of all work products and the changes made to them.
5. Procedures to ensure compliance with standards.
6. Measurement and reporting mechanisms.

Elements of SQA

• Standards: make sure standards (IEEE, ISO, company coding rules) are adopted and followed.
• Reviews and audits: technical reviews find errors; audits check that guidelines are followed.
• Testing: ensure testing is properly planned and carried out.
• Error/defect collection and analysis: find out how errors are introduced and how to prevent them.
• Change management: ensure changes are controlled.
• Education, vendor management, security, safety and risk management.

Tasks of the SQA group

• Prepare the SQA plan for the project.
• Take part in defining the project's software process.
• Review software engineering activities to check that they follow the defined process.
• Audit selected work products.
• Ensure that deviations are documented and handled.
• Record any non-compliance and report it to senior management.

Example: before a release of a college result-processing system, the SQA team checks that code reviews were held, test reports exist for every module, and all change requests were approved, before allowing the release.

Benefits: fewer defects, lower rework and maintenance cost, better customer confidence, and a more predictable process.