How customers benefit from improved quality control
Software dependency
Commerce, industry and government alike have become totally dependent on computerized systems, which largely depend on software for their effectiveness and efficiency.
Customers frequently experience significant problems with software products and in projects involving software. Such problems include malfunctioning software, late deliveries and unexpectedly high maintenance costs which, over the life of the system, might even exceed original development costs.
Sources of risk
Software supply is predominantly a design and development rather than a production activity and the most likely sources of risk are as follows:
- the difficulties many customers have in specifying requirements in other than general terms,
- the difficulties suppliers have in understanding customer's needs,
- the large quantities of information that need to be communicated and assimilated continuously in order to define and understand requirements, especially changing requirements,
- the intangible nature of software - much of the process of creating software is also intangible, involving experience, thought and imagination,
- the many means of creating software which are highly sensitive to apparently trivial deficiencies such as punctuation errors,
- the difficulty of accommodating requirements when they do change, although software is seemingly easy to change,
- the schedule and cost considerations which often pressure suppliers to deliver code before requirements are fully understood by the developers and testing can be completed,
- the fact that, in practical situations, it is impossible to test software exhaustively,
- there is a common lack of systematic use of analysis and design methodologies.
Containing risk
A complex activity, such as software development, can only be successful if the necessary methods and controls are in place from the start. Correction is too late, too costly, and too risky to implement when the project is nearing completion. Software design, development, maintenance and associated support need to be made visible and manageable at all stages in the development life cycle.
A quality management system is a means of implementing such controls. One of its main purposes is to bring customer and supplier together at defined stages of the product life cycle, thereby reducing the risk of problems occurring and improving the effectiveness of the product. Thus, the customer has a key role to play in the achievement of quality.
TickIT provides a framework for the customer and the supplier to work together to achieve the benefits of improved quality
