Mass-market software is often developed with rapidly changing requirements amid pressure to go to market quickly. Johanna Rothman, in “Defining and Managing Test Priorities for COTS Software (Members Only),” provides guidance on establishing product release criteria that also allow the test manager to prioritize the testing effort. Despite aggressive schedules, insufficient staff, and incomplete knowledge of the product’s feature set, the author has thereby had significant success meeting test schedules and getting the highest priority work accomplished.
“Initial Experiences in Software Process Modeling” shows how models of project management have offered opportunities for organizational learning and process improvement. Ray Madachy and Denton Tarbet describe how examining the models and simulated behavior have fostered communication among managers and helped them understand the key factors in complex scenarios. Knowledge of the interrelated technical and social factors has improved their planning and management processes in such areas as earned value techniques, productivity estimation, requirements volatility effects, and extrapolation of project tracking indicators.
“People Management and Development Process (Members Only) ” reports on the efforts of a geographically distributed and culturally diverse development organization to attract and retain good workers. Giovanni Evangelisti, Emilia Peciola, and Cosimo Zotti share an approach to motivating and developing the all-important human resource that is the key success factor for any business. Through job analysis, individual competence assessment and improvement, and a career advancement and reward system, the organization has decreased turnover and increased personal satisfaction.
Object-oriented software is different from procedurally based software, not only in its development life cycle but also in evaluation approaches that are appropriate. Gordon Skelton, Annette Lerine Steenkamp, and Cecil D. Burge provide an overview of these differences and then offer details on “Utilizing UML Diagrams for Integration Testing of Object-Oriented Software (Members Only) .” They offer insights into how this technique contributes to program understanding and defect detection.
We inaugurate our newest feature, called Practitioner Notes, with a contribution by Milt Boyd. He offers “A Study of Schedule Slips in a Large Firm,” in which he analyzes data on the number and size of schedule changes within a development organization. The main differentiation? Corporate culture: the way management managed.
Deependra Moitra reviews a significant practical book, CMM in Practice: Processes for Executing Software Projects at Infosys, in which author Pankaj Jalote relates process practices at India’s most respected software firm.
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Software Quality Professional
EDITORIAL/PRODUCTIONEDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Taz Daughtrey
Illuminis
Charlottesville, Virginia
sqp_editor@asqnet.org
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Sue Carroll
SAS Institute
Cary, North CarolinaPaul R. Croll
Computer Sciences Corporation
Fredericksburg, VirginiaBeth Layman
Teraquest
Melbourne Beach, FloridaStanley H. Levinson
Framatome Technologies
Lynchburg, VirginiaJohn Pustaver
Creative Data Systems
Sudbury, Massachusetts
PUBLISHER
William Tony
MANUSCRIPT COORDINATOR
Kristen Johnson
COPY EDITORS
Leigh Ann Klaus
Kris McEachern
PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATOR
Cathy Schnackenberg
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Mary Uttech
DIGITAL PRODUCTION SPECIALISTS
Michael Andes
Jill ZimmermanHTML CODING
Michael Andes
