Effective Management of Software Development

Quality as applied to a product, either software or hardware, is fitness for use. Products that are fit for use generate satisfaction for the customer and profits for the producer. For the producer, the cost of quality is the sum of the costs to prevent, appraise, and correct defects. Quality must therefore be addressed from the early development stages—specification, design, implementation, and test—through manufacture and distribution. The most important step in preventing defects is to define the right product in the first place. As design proceeds, appraisal techniques further reduce defects, so that in the final stages defect correction is minimal. This article describes the techniques and tools for achieving quality and thus improving productivity and profits.

Achieving Quality in the Development Process

Pettijohn

1986

In-Process Inspections of Workproducts at AT&T

Fowler

1986

In‐process inspections are examination meetings held to find defects in design and development workproducts, including intermediate versions of the product or system in requirements and design documents. Because these inspections delimit the phases of design and development processes, they can prevent the passage of defects from one phase to the next and significantly reduce the number of defects released to customers. Software development projects within AT&T's research and development community have been using in‐process inspections effectively for several years to reduce defects, and hardware projects began using them one and a half years ago. In addition, the experience of installing in‐process inspections in project organizations has yielded a wealth of information on technology transfer. This article defines inspections, describes the installation process, and discusses some uses for inspection data.

A Discipline for Improving Software Productivity

Factor

Smith²

1988

Software is the key to the functionality needed by today's telecommunications products and services. Traditionally, the creation of software has been a labor‐intensive endeavor. Because of the tremendous growth in software needs during the past two decades, continuing emphasis has been given to finding ways to improve software development productivity. AT&T Bell Laboratories established a program in 1986 with the goal of tripling software development productivity within three years, i.e., improving it by a factor of three. This paper describes the program's framework and the technology being pursued to respond to this challenge.