Engineering Quality Software

1. The Background to Software Engineering and Quality.- 1 The Meaning of Quality in Software.- 1.1 Quality—What is it?.- 1.2 Quality—The Elusive Element.- 1.3 The Software Process—Craft or Science?.- 1.4 Blending Engineering Discipline and Software Design.- 1.5 The Conflict between Quality and Time.- 1.6 The Decline of Hardware and the Rise of Software.- 2 Software Failures—Causes and Hazards.- 2.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Programmable Systems.- 2.2 Software-related Failures—Fault, Error, Failure.- 2.3 Causes of Faults.- 2.4 Safety Critical Software.- 2.5 Quantifying Software Reliability.- 3 The Effect of the Software Life-cycle on Quality.- 3.1 The Meaning of ‘Life-Cycle’.- 3.2 Achieving Quality Software.- 3.3 Current Practice.- 3.4 Quality Control and Quality Assurance.- 2. Current Quality Systems and Software Standards.- 4 The Traditional Approach to Software Quality.- 4.1 Quality Systems.- 4.2 Quality Organisation, Management and Review.- 4.3 Design Documentation.- 4.4 Configuration Management and Change Control.- 4.5 Programming Standards.- 4.5.1 General Rules.- 4.5.2 Structured Programming.- 4.5.3 Describing the Modules.- 4.6 Design Reviews.- 4.7 Test and Integration.- 4.8 Subcontracted and Bought-in Software.- 4.8.1 Shelf versus Custom Software.- 4.8.2 Vendor Appraisal.- 4.8.3 Field Experience and History.- 4.9 Audit.- Checklists.- 5 Current Standards and Guidelines.- 5.1 The Need for Standards.- 5.2 How Standards Evolve.- 5.3 A Summary of Current Quality Systems.- 5.3.1 UK Defence Standard 05-21.- 5.3.2 British Standard 5750 (1987).- 5.3.3 NATO Standards—AQAP Series.- 5.3.4 UK Defence Standard 00-16.- 5.3.5 UK Defence Standard 00-55.- 5.3.6 ISO 9001 (1987).- 5.4 Current Software Standards and Guidelines.- 5.4.1 HSE Document: Programmable Electronic Systems in Safety Related Applications (UK).- 5.4.2 IEE: Guidelines for the Documentation of Software in Industrial Computer Systems (UK).- 5.4.3 EEA: Guide to the Quality Assurance of Software (UK).- 5.4.4 EEA: Establishing a Quality Assurance Function for Software (UK).- 5.4.5 EEA: Software Configuration Management (UK).- 5.4.6 EEA: A Guide to the Successful Start-Up of a Software Project (UK).- 5.4.7 Ministry of Defence MASCOT (UK).- 5.4.8 Ministry of Defence JSP188: Requirements for the Documentation of Software in Military Operational Real-Time Computer Systems (UK).- 5.4.9 IEEE: Software Engineering Standards (USA).- 5.4.10 ElektronikCentralen: Standards and Regulations for Software Approval and Certification (Denmark).- 5.4.11 Guidelines for the Nordic Factory Inspectorates.- 5.4.12 TUV handbook: Microcomputer in der Sicherheitstechnik (Germany).- 5.4.13 EWICS TC7 Documents.- 5.4.14 CEC Collaborative Project.- 5.4.15 US Department of Defense Standard 2167: Defense System for Software Development..- 5.4.16 IECCA: Guide to the Management of Software-Based Systems for Defence, 3rd Edition.- 5.4.17 I Gas E: SR15, The Use of Programmable Electronic Systems in Safety Related Applications in the Gas Industry.- 5.4.18 EEMUA: Safety Related Programmable Electronic Systems.- 5.4.19 STARTS: The STARTS Guide.- 5.4.20 Some Other Documents.- 5.5 Systems for the Future.- 5.5.1 Paperless Design.- 3. Software Quality Engineering—an Ideal Approach.- 6 An Engineering Approach to Defining Requirements.- 6.1 Engineer versus Programmer.- 6.2 A New Look at the Life-Cycle.- 6.3 Current State of the Art.- 6.4 Formal versus Free Expression.- 6.5 Expressing Requirements—Specification Techniques.- 6.6 Available Specification Languages and Design Methodologies.- 6.6.1 IORL (Input/Output Requirements Language).- 6.6.2 CORE (COntrolled Requirements Expression).- 6.6.3 VDM (Vienna Development Methodology).- 6.6.4 Z.- 6.6.5 OBJ.- 6.6.6 SREM (Software Requirements Engineering Methodology).- 6.6.7 MASCOT (Modular Approach to Software Construction, Operation and Test).- 6.6.8 SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology).- 6.6.9 JSD (Jackson System Development).- 6.6.10 SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique—Ross).- 6.6.11 SSA (Structured System Analysis—De Marco).- 6.6.12 PSL/PSA (Problem Statement Language/ Analyser).- 6.6.13 Petri-nets.- 6.6.14 Object Oriented Design.- 6.7 Future Trends and Goals.- 7 Putting Design into an Engineering Context.- 7.1 Verification and Validation.- 7.2 The Design Process.- 7.3 Programming Standards.- 7.3.1 Module Specification Standard.- 7.3.2 Module Definition (Documentation and Code Package) Standard.- 7.3.3 Software Coding Standard.- 7.4 Design Review—Obtaining Visibility.- 7.5 Reviews Inspections and Walkthroughs.- 7.5.1 Reviews.- 7.5.2 Inspections.- 7.5.3 Walkthroughs.- 7.6 Configuration Management.- 7.7 Formal Verification.- Checklists.- 8 A Structured Approach to Static and Dynamic Testing.- 8.1 Limitations of Test.- 8.2 An Overview of Test Strategy.- 8.2.1 Code Inspection and Walkthrough.- 8.2.2 Symbolic Evaluation.- 8.2.3 Static Analysis.- 8.2.4 Dynamic Analysis.- 8.3 Static Analysers.- 8.3.1 MALPAS and Example.- 8.3.2 SPADE.- 8.3.3 TESTBED (LDRA).- 8.4 Dynamic Testing.- 8.4.1 Test Levels.- 8.4.2 Dynamic Test Tools.- 8.5 Test Management.- Checklists.- MALPAS Example.- 9 Languages and Their Importance.- 9.1 Programming Language—The Communication Medium.- 9.2 The Requirements of Real Time Languages.- 9.2.1 Simplicity.- 9.2.2 Security.- 9.2.3 Adaptability.- 9.2.4 Readability.- 9.2.5 Portability.- 9.2.6 Efficiency.- 9.3 Program Structures.- 9.4 Concurrency.- 9.5 Design of Languages.- 9.6 Future Languages.- 9.7 Compiler Evaluation.- 9.8 Current Languages.- 9.8.1 Procedural (Ada, Pascal, Modula 2, C, FORTRAN 77, CORAL 66, COBOL, BASIC, Algol 60, APL, PL/1).- 9.8.2 Declarative (PROLOG, LISP, Hope, FORTH).- 9.8.3 Object Oriented Languages.- 9.8.4 Fourth Generation Languages.- 10 Aspects of Fault Tolerance in Software Design.- 10.1 Redundancy, Diverse Software and Common-Cause Failure.- 10.2 Error Prevention.- 10.2.1 Electromagnetic Interference (emi).- 10.2.2 Hardware Design and Architecture.- 10.3 Error Identification and Correction.- 10.3.1 Error Detection.- 10.3.2 Error Correction.- 10.4 Data Communications.- 10.5 Graceful Degradation and Recovery.- 10.6 High Integrity Systems.- Checklists.- 4. New Management For Software Design.- 11 Software Project Management.- 11.1 Use of Automated Tools.- 11.2 The New Approach to Software Quality.- 11.3 Setting Up an Audit.- 11.3.1 Objectives of the Audit.- 11.3.2 Planning the Audit.- 11.3.3 Implementing the Audit.- 11.3.4 The Audit Report.- 11.4 Estimating.- 11.4.1 Seeking Metrics.- 11.4.2 Actual Methods.- 11.5 New Software Quality Programmes.- 11.5.1 The Alvey Programme.- 11.5.2 STARTS.- 11.5.3 ESPRIT Programme.- 11.5.4 EWICS TC7.- 11.5.5 CEC Collaborative Project.- 11.5.6 SEI.- 11.5.7 MCC Programme.- 11.5.8 SPC.- 11.5.9 STARS.- 11.5.10 JSEP.- 11.5.11 SIGMA.- 11.5.12 SPP.- 11.5.13 RACE.- 11.6 Software Security.- 11.6.1 Security Against Data Theft.- 11.6.2 Security Against Data Loss.- 11.6.3 Viruses.- 11.7 Software Safety and Liability.- 12 Quality—can it be Measured?.- 12.1 By the System Designer.- 12.2 By the Buyer.- 12.3 By means of Metrics.- 12.4 By Failure Distribution Modelling.- 12.4.1 Jelinski Moranda.- 12.4.2 Musa.- 12.4.3 Littlewood and Verral.- 12.4.4 Shooman.- 12.4.5 Schneidewind.- 12.4.6 Brown and Lipow.- 12.4.7 Seeding and Tagging.- 12.5 The Problem of Certification.- 12.6 Failure Data Acquisition.- 12.7 Benefits and Drawbacks of Assessing Software.- 12.7.1 Integrity Assessment.- 12.7.2 Benefits.- 12.7.3 Drawbacks.- 13 The Role of the Software Engineer.- 13.1 What is Needed.- 13.2 Structured Training for a Structured Discipline.- 13.3 The Importance of the Working Environment.- 5. Exercise.- 14 Software System Design Exercise—Addressable Detection System.- Checklist Application Chart.- Glossary of Terms.- A Terms Connected with Failure.- B Terms Connected with Software.- C Terms Connected with Software Systems and their Hardware.- D Terms Connected with Procedures, Management and Documents.- E Terms Connected with Test.- F Common Abbreviations.- 1 British Standards.- 2 UK Defence Standards.- 3 US Standards.- 4 Other Standards and Guidelines.- 5 Books.