Software Quality - A Prelude

Quantum of interrelated activities that produce Unbelievable, Able, Learnable, Infallible and Traceable Yield(QUALITY). Yes, QUALITY is the result of a number of interrelated activities (processes) that produce a product (Software) which is unbelievable in it’s outcome, able to perform what it is supposed to perform, perfect while performing and traceable to the requirements.

None of the readers may not disagree with me with respect to the above description of quality. We all want to produce the best product that ever produced in the world. Very categorically I can say that. But the bottleneck comes in the form of processes for the developers who, most of the times, look at processes as a villain that comes in the way of development and take away much of their precious development time! I cannot include those who are a part of companies that have accomplished higher level of Quality that would not be achieved had those organizations not received the right kind of support from the programming fraternity.

Quality is a systematic approach of developing software that touches all phases of development starting from the Proposal level to post-implementation. Whenever and wherever one is going systematic, we can see that all his/her activities are properly backed by perfect documentation that is going to act as a torch light in future for the generations ahead. We are moving through the Object Oriented Programming age and that’s why I took the analogy from the real life. In software too, in a process-oriented environment, the development is backed by well-maintained documents.

It is believed that if the quality of the processes that are implemented in the development of the product is good, quality of the product is also good. Naturally, all Top Management will try to implement the best of the standards and processes. As a corollary the search will end up in either CMMI or ISO or Six Sigma or any of the established standards. These standards represent and reflect the IT industry’s quest for globally accepted standards. These standards consider even minute factors that affect the software development. Fruhauf rightly pointed out “ Quality is when the customer comes back, not with the product”. To achieve that kind of Quality we need to follow some well-established standards till we reach a position to create our own path in terms Quality. It is the developers who play vital roles in implementation of Quality standards.

Our approach towards Quality depends mainly upon the attitude that we are having. We must be in a position to direct our views and thoughts towards Quality to achieve the same. When each one of us marry the processes and standards as our guide in pursuit of our travel to deliver the best product in at most minimum time, then, at the very same point of time, we start loving the processes and with that we can find new dimensions in customer centric activities, to what our quality policy evolves around.

It is high time for all software professionals to think highly on software quality and quality procedures since we are aiming to climb high and higher steps of success ladder in terms of Quality. If any of us is having a negative attitude towards processes and procedures, I humbly request them to clear the dark clouds away from your mind so that all of us can jointly herald the new dawn with a brighter sun – QUALITY. Change the attitude and convert the same to have enriched processes that are emerged from the pragmatic approaches that we are having. Remember the old proverb “ Change is the only thing that is permanent”. Yes, we can do that. Ultimately Quality is the sum of a joint effort put by all the employees in an organization. Emphatically I can say that Quality is present only when the employees start think, talk and work as a cohesive group where no one can endanger the unity of the employees from top to bottom.