qaresources

Quality Assurance Resources & References

Some QA Definitions
QA Engineering – A systematic approach and methodology to assess, measure, &
predict the quality of a software product utilizing product development processes and
checkpoints. Testing is a subset of this domain and primarily emphasizes uncovering
product defects & assessing readiness to release or ship.

QA Plan – Defines the inputs, outputs, processes, checkpoints, and tools to ensure that
a software product is delivered on schedule, within budget, and with a known set of
functions and features.

Core Team – A multi-disciplinary group to help guide the software product from
concept to delivery.

Entrance criteria – A pre-defined set of criteria used to establish the start or
beginning of a particular product phase or milestone.

Exit Criteria – A pre-defined set of criteria used to determine the completion or end of
a particular product phase or milestone.

Ready to Ship – Typically, a final QA checkpoint where an assessment is made of the
product status and availability of all product deliverables.

QA Metrics – A set of data to be collected and reported during the software Product
Lifecycle that will assist in determining how effective the QA processes are and the
readiness of the product or components to move from 1 phase to the next. The intent
is to predict, measure, & then improve product processes to improve product quality.

Site Name	Information Available	URL
ISO QA Standards - ISO/IEC 90003	Standards for implementing a Software Quality Assurance program	http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/xsite/con tact /01enquiryservice/011ISO9000 /sector _spec/software.htmlhttp://www.iso.ch /iso/en/
SEI/CMMI	Criteria to assess organizational processes to produce quality software Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CMMI (Capability Maturity Model® Integration)	http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/
Austin Software Process Improvement (A-SPIN)	Forum for exchange of software process improvement ideas & experiences. Part of http://www.sei.cmu.edu/collaborating/spins/	http://www.jwspro.net/aspin/charter.html
Bugzilla	Open source Bug Tracking System	http://www.bugzilla.org/
CVS (Concurrent Versions System)	Open Source version control system	http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/