Software Quality Indicators.

Because software is an increasingly essential and expensive element of defense system acquisition, methods are needed to improve the management capabilities of the government personnel responsible for monitoring software development projects. Under a contract for the Air Force Business Research Management Center, Scientific Systems Inc. developed a set of software quality indicators to meet this need. The quality indicators are to be used by government managers in Air Force Plant Representative Offices AFPROs to assess the quality of the software being developed by contractors. The quality indicators address management concerns, and are oriented toward the AFPRO engineer and point of contact for a project. They take advantage of data that is already being collected on many projects, and are independent of the technical methodology being used by the contractor. The indicators are specific to phases in the development life cycle, and provide information on the status of a project from several different perspectives. Analysis of the quality indicators can reveal potential problems in time for corrective action. Eleven quality indicators are recommended Progress Stability Process Compliance Quality Evaluation Effort Test Coverage Defect Detection Efficiency Requirements Traceability Defect Removal Rate Defect Age Profile Defect Density and Complexity.