TABLE OF CONTENTS Our role as software testers involves participation in activities where we evaluate the quality of an evolving software product. To engage in these activities in an effective way we need to understand what quality means, and how to quantify and measure it. We need to be able to detect the weaknesses and defects in our products that impact on quality, and do this in an efficient and effective way. Finally, we need to understand the nature of the development and testing processes and how these processes impact on software quality. Practices in our processes that have a negative effect on quality should be eliminated, and those that have a positive effect should be promoted. The TMM assessment process is designedto support the latter goals.
To promote understanding of quality concepts this text has addressed quality issues in several of the preceding chapters. For example, in Chapter 2 definitions for software quality from the IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology were given and are repeated for readers to review [1].
Quality relates to the degree to which a system, system component, or process meets specified requirements.
Quality relates to the degree to which a system, system component, or process, meets customer, or user, needs or expectations.
Chapter 2 also gave a description of the role of a quality assurance group that is repeated here for review.
The software quality assurance (SQA) group is a team of people with the necessary training and skills...
