Quality of Processes & Products

Question 1

What is a software process?

Answer 1

Software Process = A set of partially ordered steps intended to manage, develop and maintain software products.

Question 2

What are the two perspectives of Software processes?

Answer 2

Hero Perspective: All what we need for successful software development is heroes.

Process is everything: Following some prescribed “good” process automaticallyr esults in good products (software will almost write itself)

Question 3

What needs to be described in a software process?

Answer 3

• What activities are performed?
• Who participates?
• What artifacts are produced/consumed by which activites?
• What agents are responsible for performing each activity?
• When do activities begin and end?
• What does the activity do?
• Which supporting tools are used?
• Which additional constraints exist?

Question 4

What are teh characteristics of a ‘good’ process?

Answer 4

• Effectiveness: the process must help us produce the right produce.
• Efficiency: The process must help us to produce the product in the right way.
• Maintainability: ‘Does anybody know who wrote this code? And what it is for?”
• Predictability: A good process will help to predict the effort, the duration and resulting product quality.
• Repeatability: Process re-use by adapting an existing (proven) process.
• Tracking: Allows to follow the status of a project.
• Quality of the product.

Question 5

How to establish ‘good’ processes?

Answer 5

• One size does not fit all.
• Maasure to know where you are.
• Set quantifieable goals
• Goals may vary from project to project.
• Process is a variable and needs to be selected and tailored for context.
• Process selection requires empirical evidence.
• Software technologies have bounds and limits and we need to know them.
• Project feedback is needed to compare against expectation.
• Analysis and synthesis of observations are necessary for learning and evolution.