Page 250 -

CHAPTER 8 SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE 221

[LIT89] Littlewood, B., “Forecasting Software Reliability,” in Software Reliability: Mod-
eling and Identification, (S. Bittanti, ed.), Springer-Verlag, 1989, pp. 141–209.
[MUS87] Musa, J.D., A. Iannino, and K. Okumoto, Engineering and Managing Software
with Reliability Measures, McGraw-Hill, 1987.
[POR95] Porter, A., H. Siy, C.A. Toman, and L.G. Votta, "An Experiment to
Assess the Cost-Benefits of Code Inspections in Large Scale Software
Development," Proc. Third ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software
Engineering, Washington, D.C., October 1996, ACM Press, pp. 92–103.
[ROB97] Robinson, H., “Using Poka-Yoke Techniques for Early Error Detection,” Proc.
Sixth International Conference on Software Testing Analysis and Review (STAR'97), 1997,
pp. 119–142.
[ROO90] Rook, J., Software Reliability Handbook, Elsevier, 1990.
[SCH98] Schulmeyer, G.C. and J.I. McManus (eds.), Handbook of Software Quality
Assurance, 3rd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1998.
[SCH94] Schmauch, C.H., ISO 9000 for Software Developers, ASQC Quality Press, 1994.
[SCH97] Schoonmaker, S.J., ISO 9001 for Engineers and Designers, McGraw-Hill, 1997.
[SHI86] Shigeo Shingo, Zero Quality Control: Source Inspection and the Poka-yoke
System, Productivity Press, 1986.
[SOM96] Somerville, I., Software Engineering, 5th ed., Addison-Wesley, 1996.
[VES81] Veseley, W.E., et al., Fault Tree Handbook, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Com-
mission, NUREG-0492, January 1981.

PROBLEMS AND POINTS TO PONDER

8.1. Early in this chapter we noted that “variation control is the heart of quality con-
trol.” Since every program that is created is different from every other program, what
are the variations that we look for and how do we control them?

8.2. Is it possible to assess the quality of software if the customer keeps changing
what it is supposed to do?
8.3. Quality and reliability are related concepts but are fundamentally different in a
number of ways. Discuss them.
8.4. Can a program be correct and still not be reliable? Explain.
8.5. Can a program be correct and still not exhibit good quality? Explain.

8.6. Why is there often tension between a software engineering group and an inde-
pendent software quality assurance group? Is this healthy?
8.7. You have been given the responsibility for improving the quality of software
across your organization. What is the first thing that you should do? What's next?
8.8. Besides counting errors, are there other countable characteristics of software
that imply quality? What are they and can they be measured directly?