Introduction to TDT 4235

1. Introduction to TDT 4235 Tor Stålhane IDI / NTNU

2. Introduction TDT 4235 – Quality assurance and process improvement – consists of two parts: • Quality Assurance – QA: nine lectures, covered by 14 chapters in the compendium. • Software Process Improvement – SPI: 23 lectures, covered by 19 chapters in the compendium Lectures are held on • Wednesdays 13:15 – 14:00 in F6 • Fridays 11:15 – 13:00 in F3

3. What will you learn This course have two foci: QA and SPI. In the course we will focus on how to do QA and SPI in an industrial setting. This means that quit a lot of what you will learn are methods that • Look a little “un-scientific” and contains little mathematics and proofs • Are simple to use in practice • Are based on solid industrial experience and are known to work in practice

4. What will you learn – QA (1) • An intro to quality and quality assurance • The concept of Total Quality Management – TQM • The International Standards Organization quality standard ISO 9001 plus its guidelines for software – ISO 90003 • How to certify a quality system • Different types of standards

5. What will you learn – QA (2) • How to introduce and implement a standard in a company • Quality improvement – the what’s and how’s • How to measure and assess quality • A product quality standard – ISO 9126 • QA, ISO 9001 and agile development (Scrum) • QA, TQM and innovations – pros and cons

6. What will you learn – SPI (1) SPI in an industrial setting is about three main activities • Data collection and analysis – what is the problem, where does it come from and how big is it? • Root Cause Analysis – how can we get rid of or reduce the problem? • Post-analysis – did our solution really work and what can we learn from it?

7. What will you learn – SPI (2) • An intro to software process improvement • SPI through best practice – CMM – and through problem solving – TQM • Analysing risk and opportunity – the GALE and ALARP methods • Data collection for SPI • SWOT, Gap analysis and Open space. • Affinity diagrams, interviews, surveys and experiments

8. What will you learn – SPI (3) • Subjective data and how to analyse them • Data archaeology • Post Mortem Analysis – PMA – and business value • Root Cause Analysis – RCA • Goal – Question – Metrics, the GQM method for data collection • Data analysis • Plotting • Statistical analysis • Sample size

9. What will you learn – SPI (4) • Reuse of experience • Proactive SPI • Alternative SPI – a collection of methods that has been used and sometimes worked quite well • Several case studies from industrial SPI

10. About exercises – 1 The exercises will be done in groups of 3 to 5 persons. There are three exercises: • Exercise 1: write a QA procedure for a Small – Medium Enterprise (SME). • Exercise 2: write an essay. The topic have to be selected from a predefined list of essay topics. The result will count for 30% of your grade. • Exercise 3: perform data analysis of a set of error reports and suggest improvements for the company.

11. About exercises – 2 You need to get together and • Form groups • Report the group’s members to the teaching assistant, who will give the group a serial number. All group members will get the same assessment • Pass or No pass for exercise 1 and 3 • Points between 0 and 30 for exercise 2

12. Students’ expectations – 1 I need to know what you expect to get out of the course. • I’m not planning to meet all your expectations • I will tell you which of your expectations that • Will be met. E.g. you will learn about how to assess product quality • Will not be met. E.g. you will not learn how to be a better programmer.

13. Students’ expectations – 2 You can help me by writing down your expectations for the course on a piece of paper – one short sentence per item – and give it to me after this lecture I will analyse the input, make a summary and tell you which part of your expectations that will be met by the course. The summary will be presented at the start of the lecture next Monday.