The History Of Software Quality

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract— the main purpose of this paper is to show how quality of different type of systems differs from one another. It discusses about quality dimensions of goods and services as well as seven types of quality tools and finally, it describes the four phases of quality movement.

QUALITY BESPOKE PRODUCTS AND MARKET-DRIVEN

PRODUCTS

Quality between bespoke and market-driven varies depending

on the type of the customer. The word "bespoke" implies as a

buyer‟s specification, personalize or tailored [1]. These three words refer to customers. Quality of bespoke is the quality of goods provided for a specific customer or organization under contract. Similarly, quality of market-driven implies quality of products for a generalized market or for a mass market.

Qualities of bespoke products and market-driven products have distinctive features. Some features of bespoke are specific, limited and expensive to provide. Whereas some features of market-driven are generalized, complex, competitive and is much cheaper to provide. To describe and explain these distinctive features, we will compare two software examples. Sunplus is accounting software of an NGO company called Adventist Development and Relief Agency

(ADRA) and Saga Peachtree is accounting software used in many companies all over the world [2].

Sunplus is a good example of bespoke product. Because of its specific design, it is easy to use and understand. It is limited to

the specification of the company‟s (ADRA) requirements

therefore it runs on any kind of computer whether it is super computer or low processing computer and uses less disk space which makes requirements type of computer as not an issue. The software cost is expensive because the design was based on one company. On the other hand, market-driven products such as Saga Peachtree are used for the general population. Since customer needs for the general population varies, it has so many features of accounting that makes it complex to use. The software provider has to be competitive between other providers since quality can also be defined by the customers. The software is cheaper than Sunplus that can be affordable by any person. Table 1 shows the advantages and disadvantages of quality bespoke products and market-driven products.

Features

of

Quality

Features of Quality Market-

Bespoke Products

Driven Products

Simple to use

Complex to use

Less requirements

More requirements

Limited

competitive

expensive

Cheap

Specific

generalized

Table 1: Features of quality bespoke products and market-driven products

QUALITY BETWEEN DIFFERENT KINDS OF SOFTWARE

Quality varies between different kind of software systems but with common goal that aims at the needs of customer, present and future [3] and the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills the requirements [3]. How do we approach these goals to the different kinds of software systems? There are different types of software systems used for different type of purposes. Business solutions software systems use advertisements and quality of service to insure customers‟ loyalty and fulfill their needs. Operating systems are designed to be user friendly so that users can operate and adapt to the environment of the system without difficulties and are also designed to be compatible with hardware so that devices can perform well. Games come up with different ideas and challenge to keep the players interested. Banking systems and nuclear software systems mainly emphasize on securities to keep the customers confidentiality and safety protocols consequently. The table 2 shows different requirements regarding quality put on the different kind of systems

according to their priority concerns.

Software

Quality

Systems

Performance

Reliability

Adaptability

Safety

Operating

Yes

Yes

Yes

-

systems

Banking

-

Yes

Yes

Yes

Systems

Games

Yes

Yes

Nuclear

Yes

Yes

Table 2. Different requirements regarding quality put on the

different kind of systems according to their priority concerns.

Quality Dimensions of goods and services

Product concept can refer to services, goods, or combination of both. Products as goods are usually hardware that the customer comes to own, specify and measure the product [3]. On the other hand services are activities and processes that the customer goes through mainly related to the

customers‟ confidence in those providing the service [3].

Some of the quality dimensions of goods are reliability, performance, maintainability, environment impact, appearance, flawlessness, safety and durability where as dimensions of service are reliability, credibility, access, communication, responsiveness, courtesy, empathy, and tangibles.

Quality dimensions of goods

Reliability: Refers to the time constraint reliability of the product implying how often the product faces problems and how big the damage caused are [3].

Performance refers to speed, capacity and useful life or size [3].

Maintainability is to become aware of the problems of the product, check whether is it easy or difficult to detect it and take care of it [3].

Environmental impact: implies to the effect that the product has on the environment [3]. Example: If the product is recyclable or not.

Appearance: Refers to the choice of the customer, towards design and color [3].

Flawlessness: Checks for goods if whether spoiled, disfigured or have errors during time of purchase [3].

Safety: Insures safety or harm offering adequate protections against damage towards a person [3].

Durability: Indicates that the products do not deteriorate while it has been transported, stored or used [3].

Quality dimensions of service

Reliability: Refers to consistent performance and fulfilling the guarantee promised to the customer. This includes punctuality and accuracy of invoice procedures [3].

Credibility: Implies whether the supplier is trusted or not [3]. Access: Refers to the availability of the supplier for information or assistance [3]. Example is opening hours. Communication: An understandable communication way that the supplier uses to assist the customer [3].

Responsiveness and courtesy: Responsiveness shows willingness of the supplier to assist the customers where as courtesy refers to the politeness and kindness of the supplier [3].

Empathy and tangibles: Empathy comes from Greek word which means insight or felling. Therefore it implies where

about of the customers‟ situations [3]. Tangibles are the

environment where the services take place [3].

Quality tools

The Seven tools that are used systematically for problem solving are

Flow Charts

Histogram

Cause and Effect Diagram

Check Sheet

Scatter Diagram

Control Charts

Pareto Charts

Flow Chart: This is the basic quality tool that can be used for analyzing a sequence of events. The tool maps a sequence of events that take place sequentially or in parallel. It can be used to understand complex processes to find the relationships and dependences between events and also we get an idea of the path followed by the process and the events involved in it [3] [4].

Histogram: Histogram is tool that can be used for summarizing, analyzing and displaying the data. It provides the graphical representation of the amount of variation found in the set of data. It sorts data into categories and describes the frequency of the data found in each category [3] [4].

Cause and Effect Diagram: The important part of process improvement is to obtain more information about the process and the output. Cause and effect diagram leads us to the root cause of the problem. By using this tool, we can construct a graphical representation of the trails that leads to root cause of the quality problem [3] [4].

Check Sheet: Check sheets are the most basic tool for collecting data. They allow the data to be collected in a easy, systematic and organized manner. This check sheet collected data can be used as input data for other tools [3] [4].

Scatter Diagram: Scatter Diagram is the best way to present values of two variables. It is a mathematical diagram using Cartesian co-ordinates to display the values of the dataset. The data is displayed as collection of points, each having a value of one variable determining the on the horizontal axis and the value of the other variable determining the position on x axis [3] [4].

Control Charts: Most commonly known as Statistical Process Control, is used for understanding the variation in the process and how it affects the output. By using this tool, we can analyze, monitor and understand the process which helps in reducing the process variation [3] [4].

Pareto Charts: By using this chart we can prioritize the problems so that we can deal with the important once first. The organizations will not have enough resources to deal with each problem then these charts can be helpful. The basic

underlying rule behind Pareto‟s law is that in almost every

case, 80% of the total problems incurred are caused by 20% of the problems cause types. Therefore, concentrating on the major problem first, eliminates majority of the problems [3] [4].

Quality in Supply Process

By using traditional methods, the organizations were unable to satisfy their customer needs or demands. So in order to satisfy the customer needs and demands they came up with new solution called supply chain management. Supply Chain management is defined as design, planning, execution, control and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of

creating of net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally. The trust between the buying firm and supply firm plays an important role [3].

By this way, the organization can provide high quality products and within the given time at low-cost.

The product should be able satisfy the customer requirements and should have a high quality control. Total Quality management can be used when the customer comes up with wrong estimations [3].

Four phases of the quality movement

The four phases of quality movement are quality inspection, quality control, quality assurance and quality management [3]. Quality inspection: In this phase, the finished products will be checked and the defective units will be removed from the service and will be re-worked [3].

Quality control: In this phase, it is better to find the whether the product is defective or not in the early phase so that amendments can be made to avoid the defective units. By this

way we can have quality control and can do the amendments at the cheaper costs [3].

Quality assurance: The steps implemented in a quality system so that the quality requirements for the units are fulfilled [3]. Quality management: It is the act of overseeing all the activities and tasks needed to maintain desire level of excellence. This includes creating and implementing quality planning and assurance as well as quality control and quality improvement [3].

REFRENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bespoke

sunplus.adventist.org

[3]Bo Bergman, Bengt Klefsjö, „Quality from customer need

to customer satisfaction‟, 2005.

[4]http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/basic

_quality_tools.htm.

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