IMPROQ

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IMPROQ04 Panel Presentation
Impact of Software Process on Quality
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SW PROCESS QUALITY Nature of Software
Engineering 1

• Understanding the impact of software process on
  quality depends upon understanding the nature of
  software development
• that software development is software engineering
  (SE)
• that engineering is design-centric (in recent
  literature, the fact that engineers dont build
  have been pointed out repeatedly)
• that the design materials in SE are concepts (see
  f. ex. Bratteteigs SW design working with
  symbolic material in Designing Design Workshop,
  2001, Oslo)
• that concepts and the possiblity to conceptualize
  anything actually create what does not exist (a
  characteristic of design as opposed to science)
  brings SE closer to design-centric disciplines
  like architecture, art, literature and dramaturgy
• Thus, the concept of quality is difficult to
  define in a formal and objective manner, and the
  process is highly creative experimental and
  practice-oriented with unpredictable outcomes
  where changing views and methods/approaches/tools
  help (common practice in architecture etc see
  Ina Wagners work on design processes in
  architecture)

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SW PROCESS QUALITY Nature of Software
Engineering 2

• Like architecture, art and literature SW
  engineering is one specific discipline but for
  many (practically all) other disciplines that
  cannot be mastered by SW engineers
• This makes extensive expertise in the target area
  or extensive studies necessary (as in literature,
  dramaturgy, architecture etc)

• What we characterize as requirements engineering
  is part of design, not prior to design!

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SW PROCESS QUALITY Nature of Software
Engineering 3

• If engineers dont build, then what is coding,
  testing, deployment and other implementation-level
  activities?
• If SE can be compared to art and other
  desig-centric disciplines, then implementation in
  SE is crafting it is part of expressing what is
  conceptualized and characterized.

• For the software engineer, implementation is
  experimentation (platform specific realization),
  and for the software crafter, it is
  implementation.

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SW PROCESS QUALITY Their Relationship

• There are no disciplines where process quality
  does not impact product quality, and there are no
  disciplines where just the existence of (an
  arbitrary) process guarantees quality
• This implies that the process for quality SW
  needs to be of high quality
• Then we have the issue of defining what high
  quality process is
• The capability to define high quality process
  is very much dependent upon a good
  understandingof the nature of the discipline
  itself in this case SE

• STANCE
• One paradigm is one perspective. The SE process
  requires multiple perspectives as in any creative
  process. Thus, just choosing OO vs. CB doesnt
  help paradigms that serve the tasks/pahses at
  hand need to be identified and used also from a
  cognitive point of view
• A creative process demands multiple styles. Thus,
  only choosing project style like agile vs. rigid
  is not sufficient either. Experimentation and
  crafting is necessarily agile they are
  personal activities. Team-work cannot be agile
  (except in pairwise work).
• Finally, SE is is design-centric (creative) as
  its processes need to be...
• Exercise watch at least three architectural
  projects noting the details