Documents about software quality measurement and control by the Asetechs team.

I - Code Inspection

Fagan_advancesinSoftwareInspection1986.pdf: Advances in software inspection. An article written by Fagan in 1986 and still up-to-date.
Formal_Inspection.pdf: Formal inspections are a type of review distinguished from other types of reviews by being: In process, Directed towards finding defects, Conducted following a certain rigorous process. 2003.
Asetechs_automated_software_inspection_2010_french.pdf: Service d'inspection automatisée des logiciels (this article is in french - Automated software inspection by Asetechs). 2010.
COBOL_minefield_detection.pdf: In Cobol, procedures can be programmed in ways that lead to unexpected behaviour and reduced portability. This behaviour is recognized as so-called 'mines': programming practices containing hidden dangers and requiring extreme caution. 2006.
Identifying_Procedural_Structures_in_Cobol_1999.pdf: This paper shows how a Cobol program can be efficiently transformed into a semantically equivalent procedurally well-structured representation. 1999. (Asetechs normalizer functions aiming at reducing Cobol Mines are based on this paper (i.e. control flow and data flow usage in particular)).
Code-review-literature.pdf: What modern literature has to say about code review; what studies do and don't agree on. 2006.

II - Software Quality Measurement

SEI_Software_Metrics_1988_synthesis_cm12_HALSTEAD.pdf: Effective management of any process requires quantification, measurement, and modeling. Software metrics provide a quantitative basis for the development and validation of models of the software development process. This document contains important definitions of many quality measures. 1988.
Establishment_of_Measures_in_CMMI_Feb_2005_Program.pdf: This article presents one example solution for establishing CMMI based measurements. 2005.
McCabe_cyclomatic_audit_process.pdf: Structured Testing: A Testing Methodology Using the Cyclomatic Complexity Metric. 1996.
Conquering_Complexity_2007.pdf: In complex systems, combinations of minor software defects can lead to large system failures. A synthesis to avoid this situtation. 2007.

III - Process Improvement: CMMI, 6 Sigma

A_personal_commitment_to_software_quality_a_process_Humphrey_SEI_1995.pdf: Much of the following paper is an excerpt from one chapter of the book, A Discipline for Software Engineering (Addison Wesley) by the author. This textbook describes the personal software process (PSP) and provides a step-by-step program for its introduction.
CMMI_11_OptimizingSmallProjectROI_Schwab.pdf: Define and deploy an integrated cost effective measurement program which conform to industry standards and best practices for measurement and analysis. 2007.
Relationship_between_CMMI_and_6-SIGMA.pdf: Successfully implementing CMMI and Six Sigma together requires an understanding of the relationships between the two. Coupling this knowledge with a conscious strategy enables an organization to create tactical plans and specific mappings to support implementation. 2006.
Embedded_Technology_static_versus_dynamic_analysis.pdf: Why the new static analysis techniques can effectively complement the dynamic analysis.

IV - Economic justification of Quality

It is apparently difficult to find documents presenting rationale and measures about ROI. Yet we will keep on updating this topics since it is a decisive one. We are obviously welcoming any suggestions from your part: suggested documents about ROI of Software Practices..
Capers_state_of_the_art_2005.pdf: Software devlopment: the state of the art in 2005. Not yet obsolete today, a good description of the observed practices.
Business Case for Better Software Practices_ROI_for_Code_Inspection.pdf: Facts and ROI presentation for different software practices, in particular the effect of automated Code Inspection. 2004.
Six_Sigma_DFSS_why_inspection_is_key.pdf: Code inspection revisited with the 6 Sigma approach. 2010.
Business Case for Better Software Practices_ROI_for_Code_Inspection.pdf
Identifying the Mechanisms to Improve Code Inspection Costs and Benefits.pdf: Software inspections have long been considered to be an effective way to detect and remove defects from software.However, there are costs associated with carrying out inspections and these costs may outweigh the expected benefits. It is important to understand the tradeoffs between these costs and benefits. 1996.
Why Don't They Practice What We Preach .pdf: One of the most intractable problems in software is getting engineers to consistently use effective methods. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has worked on this problem for a number of years and has developed effective methods for addressing it. This paper describes these methods and shows what they have accomplished with several hundred students and working engineers, and the benefits gained. 2007.
cm12_metrics_software_with_commented_biblio_SEI.pdf: The document presents a set of useful metrics definition and an excellent bibliography. 1988.

V - Articles selected by Asetechs in 2011

Software_quality_survey_2010.pdf: Software quality in 2010: A survey of the state of the art by Capers Jones
SoftwareDefect_Reduction_top_10_list.pdf: Software's complexity and accelerated development schedules make avoiding defects difficult. These 10 techniques can help reduce the flaws in your code.
Defect_tracking_against_quality_targets_ROI_of_projects.pdf: The author compares the profits and losses from a company's releasing software with numerous defects.
QualityImprovement_MeasurementDrivenProjectManagement_Olson.pdf: Discusses some measurement strategies and provide an example project measurement dashboard.
QualityImprovement_RapidlyAchievingROI_UsingEarlyDEFECTdetection_Olson.pdf: Describes how to estimate and measure ROI using defect dollarization.

VI - Interesting links about software quality and security

Go to Links page

Some documents and articles, a short selection (updated on 2011/05)