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Can software quality be assured?

Ger Cloudt is global R&D software manager at Bosch and author of the book “What is software quality?”.

Reading time: 6 minutes

If you ask people what’s meant by software quality assurance (SQA), most likely you’ll get one, or maybe both, of the following two answers. SQA is the definition and execution of and compliance with processes defining how to do your work. The second most likely response would be, it’s about sufficient testing to reveal defects and resolve them. Ger Cloudt takes a closer look at both of these answers in the context of software quality.

Many people believe that high levels of quality can be achieved by having the proper work processes in place. Processes that define what activities should be performed, how we should perform them and in which order. Each process step has to serve a purpose. One of the steps could be to perform a code review. The purpose is twofold: by reviewing, errors might be detected early so that the cost of resolution is low, and it’s a way of knowledge transfer among team members.

For sure, proper processes and ways of working will contribute to the level of quality. However, I consider the activities performed by craftsmen to be even more important. Having an incompetent engineer conduct the code review lets you checkmark the process step as done, thus complying with the process definition, but it won’t contribute to better quality.

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