New metrics needed for new generation: lines of code, function points won't do at the dawn of the graphical, object era - computer-aided software engineering: includes related article on Windows test tools and a glossary on metrics for object oriented design - Buyers Guide

Software Magazine, May, 1992 by Jessica Keyes

For example, he said, the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) sticker on a product verifies that the product meets certain safety criteria. "UL is now getting 'smart' electrical components and has no idea how to evaluate them. So, they are saying to the manufacturers, 'Show us. Expose the

[TABULAR DATA OMITTED] process to us so we can begin to certify the process as well as the product.'"

Already the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has implemented a certification procedure called ISO 9000, which uses a set of related standards on quality management and quality assurance. The ISO 9000 certification process is based on the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) self-assessment procedures. These procedures represent a five-level software process maturity framework. The five levels are: basic management control, process definition, process management, process control and optimization.

IS organizations are not the only ones facing quality and measurement issues. Software and hardware vendors pushing into the new frontiers of client/server and GUI development must also address these matters.

QUALITY READINESS

Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, Pa., uses the SEI five-level software process maturity matrix to self-assess their readiness for quality, according to Brian Magowan, vice president and general manager, Program Management Computer Systems Group. In charge of all Unisys software, his responsibilities cross hardware boundaries, requiring his staff to master not only the mainframe but also the DOS and Unix worlds. "A number of years ago we concluded that we didn't have a sufficient emphasis on software engineering quality issues," he said. "We made some decisions then that we are in the process of implementing now."

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Under Magowan's stewardship, Unisys has implemented a TQM program in which quality and productivity is "everybody's job." They first step was to train everyone, including programmers, in the basics of modern quality thinking. Magowan said this course was not specifically geared to software engineering, but rather emphasized the W. Edwards Deming approach to quality. (Deming was the American responsible for fostering quality as a buzzword in American industry, even though he had to go to Japan to do it.) The Unisys quality course includes everything from statistical process control, to why quality is everyone's job and why it leads to productivity.

What this translates to "is some general TQM thinking, where different software engineering organizations get to apply that thinking to their own development life cycles," Magowan explained. Taking this approach has lowered the Unisys defect rate, he said. Using an in-house automated system named Primus, Unisys staff and customers can track defects both before and after release. This enables Unisys to "improve tests to make sure that we don't let software out that had bugs init," said Magowan.

This emphasis on improving the quality of software has broadened, encompassing issues that relate to completeness and marketability of the products. "Our emphasis on quality forces us to concentrate on three key areas: defect rates, predictability of software performance and product completeness," he said.