Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Task

A Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Task is a quality assurance software engineering task that ensures software products and software services meet defined quality standards and customer expectations.

• AKA: Software Quality Control.
• Context:
  • It can typically enforce Software Quality Standards through quality control processes.
  • It can typically identify Software Defects through systematic reviews.
  • It can typically ensure Software Compliance through standards verification.
  • It can typically improve Software Development Processes through process assessments.
  • It can typically measure Software Quality Metrics through quality measurement tools.
  • ...
  • It can often prevent Software Quality Issues through proactive quality practices.
  • It can often facilitate Software Process Improvement through feedback mechanisms.
  • It can often support Software Certification through compliance documentation.
  • It can often reduce Software Development Costs through early defect detection.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Manual SQA Task to being an Automated SQA Task, depending on its SQA task execution method.
  • It can range from being a Preventive SQA Task to being a Corrective SQA Task, depending on its SQA task timing approach.
  • It can range from being a Project-Level SQA Task to being an Enterprise-Level SQA Task, depending on its SQA task organizational scope.
  • ...
  • It can be performed by SQA Engineers or SQA Teams.
  • It can utilize SQA Tools for task automation.
  • It can follow SQA Methodologys for quality assurance consistency.
  • It can produce SQA Reports for stakeholder communication.
  • It can integrate with Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) for continuous quality assurance.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Requirements Analysis SQA Tasks, such as:
    • Requirements Completeness Review Task that ensures requirement specification completeness.
    • Requirements Consistency Check Task that validates requirement internal consistency.
    • Requirements Traceability Analysis Task that maintains requirement traceability matrix.
  • Design Review SQA Tasks, such as:
    • Architecture Review Task that evaluates software architecture quality.
    • Design Pattern Review Task that assesses design pattern appropriateness.
    • Interface Design Review Task that validates interface specification.
  • Code Quality SQA Tasks, such as:
    • Code Review Task that examines source code quality.
    • Static Code Analysis Task that identifies code vulnerabilities.
    • Coding Standards Compliance Task that verifies coding standard adherence.
  • Testing Quality SQA Tasks, such as:
    • Test Plan Review Task that evaluates test coverage adequacy.
    • Test Case Review Task that validates test case effectiveness.
    • Test Result Analysis Task that assesses testing thoroughness.
  • Process Compliance SQA Tasks, such as:
    • CMMI Compliance Audit Task that verifies CMMI process adherence.
    • ISO 9001 Compliance Review Task that ensures ISO quality standard compliance.
    • Agile Process Review Task that evaluates agile practice implementation.
  • Configuration Management SQA Tasks, such as:
    • Version Control Audit Task that verifies version control practices.
    • Build Process Review Task that validates build automation quality.
    • Release Management Review Task that ensures release process compliance.
  • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Software Development Tasks, which create software artifacts rather than ensure quality standards.
  • Project Management Tasks, which manage project timelines rather than quality attributes.
  • Software Maintenance Tasks, which fix software issues rather than prevent quality problems.
  • Customer Support Tasks, which assist end users rather than ensure development quality.
  • Software Training Tasks, which educate users rather than verify quality compliance.
• See: Software Engineering Task, Software Quality, Quality Assurance, CMMI, Software Testing, Code Review, Software Development Process, Software Configuration Management, Release Management, Software Quality Metric.
• References:
  • (Wikipedia, 2023) Software Quality Assurance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/software_quality_assurance - "Software quality assurance (SQA) is a means and practice of monitoring all software engineering processes, methods, and work products to ensure compliance against defined standards."
  • (2023) Software Quality Assurance Discussion. "SQA is a process that ensures software products and services meet defined quality standards and customer expectations through activities including requirements analysis, design review, code review, testing, configuration management, release management, and quality metrics."

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References

2023

• chat
  • Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a process that ensures that software products and services meet defined quality standards and customer expectations. The goal of SQA is to ensure that the software development process is robust, efficient, and effective in delivering high-quality software products and services to customers.

    SQA involves various activities throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC) and beyond. Some of the SQA activities include:

    • Requirements Analysis: This involves reviewing and analyzing the software requirements to ensure that they are complete, consistent, and achievable.
    • Design Review: This involves reviewing the software design to ensure that it meets the requirements, is scalable, maintainable, and robust.
    • Code Review: This involves reviewing the source code to ensure that it is efficient, secure, and adheres to coding standards.
    • Testing: This involves executing software applications to identify defects, bugs, and errors, and ensure that the software meets its functional and non-functional requirements.
    • Configuration Management: This involves managing and controlling software development artifacts such as source code, requirements, and documentation.
    • Release Management: This involves managing the software release process to ensure that software is deployed in a controlled and consistent manner.
    • Quality Metrics: This involves defining and measuring quality metrics to track the progress of the software development process and identify areas for improvement.
  • While SQA covers a broad range of activities, there are some related activities that are not considered part of SQA. For example, software development and project management are related activities, but they are not part of SQA. Similarly, software maintenance, customer support, and training are also related activities, but they are not part of SQA.

In summary, SQA is a process that ensures that software products and services meet defined quality standards and customer expectations. SQA involves activities such as requirements analysis, design review, code review, testing, configuration management, release management, and quality metrics. Other related activities such as software development, project management, maintenance, customer support, and training are not considered part of SQA.

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/software_quality_assurance Retrieved:2023-2-23.
  • Software quality assurance (SQA) is a means and practice of monitoring all software engineering processes, methods, and work products to ensure compliance against defined standards. It may include ensuring conformance to standards or models, such as ISO/IEC 9126 (now superseded by ISO 25010), SPICE or CMMI. It includes standards and procedures that managers, administrators or developers may use to review and audit software products and activities to verify that the software meets quality criteria which link to standards. SQA encompasses the entire software development process, including requirements engineering, software design, coding, code reviews, source code control, software configuration management, testing, release management and software integration. It is organized into goals, commitments, abilities, activities, measurements, verification and validation.

2020

• (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/software_quality_assurance Retrieved:2020-3-6.
  • Software quality assurance (SQA) is a means of monitoring the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure proper quality. ...

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