Who should attend
The tutorial will discuss especially topics of quality and productivity, which are of high importance to software and system engineers, configuration managers, project managers and product managers. The level of the tutorial will be between intermediate and advanced. Advanced topics will be discussed in detail if demanded by participants. A basic knowledge on software methods and tools might be helpful for a participant to participate actively in the tutorial.
Goals
The overall aim of the tutorial is to make the attendees aware of the development of the technology and to provide practical approaches to the quality problem. Putting together the results and findings of several European projects on software quality and productivity the seminar will especially address the needs of software managers and software developers.
Contents
Topics: problem domain (software quality and productivity); principles of software verification and validation; effective software metrication; multi-criteria assessment; process evaluation and certification (ISO 9000 series, IEEE, CMM, Trillium, SPICE, Vorgehens- modell, SSADM etc); product evaluation and certification (ISO 9126 and guides); experiences and perspectives.
The methods and tools for evaluating and assessing software products and software processes are discussed in detail. Particular emphasis is given to the identification and selection of software characteristics and metrics, as well as to the handling of evaluation methods and tools. Given the huge number of software metrics, the problem of identifying the right one and applying it correctly is an important issue. A practitioner's approach to solving this problem is presented. Advantages and limitations of inspections, testing, and verification are discussed.
The SEI CMM, the DIN 66 285 evaluation and certification procedure and the ISO 9000 series are the most relevant standards. The tutorial also addresses the German standard for process modelling, the V-Model, which was developed for the German DoD, is widely used in NATO and non- military industries, and is the basis of the EU's EUROMETHOD standard for software engineering and procurement.
Emphasis is particularly given to evaluation, and to the concept of the evaluation module, which allows a well-structured description of evaluation techniques (inspection, testing, reliability modelling) as well as the definition of their interaction. The method described has been used and validated in a set of 27 industrial case studies. To ensure its practicability, a set of dedicated instruments, including measurement tools and metrics data bases, have been developed and applied, together with an Evaluator's Guide, Evaluation Module Development Guide, and Guide to Documenting an Evaluation Module.
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