Optimyth presents CQM: checKing Quality Model

Posted by Juan Pablo Tejela on Feb 29, 2012 in Quality metrics, Quality model | 0 comments

Software quality is the bread and butter of Optimyth Software. All our products have the common goal of helping our customers measure and improve the quality of their software.

Over the years we have built and evolved our products with the customer always in mind. In fact we are proud to say that every single company in our customer base has improved our products in one way or another.

When you want to measure quality you need a “measuring tape”.  We have learnt that it’s not that simple to choose one, though. This is where our customers have contributed a great deal and as result we have come up with the “universal measuring tape”: the checKing Quality Model or CQM for short. read on and learn what it is.

What is CQM?

checKing Quality Model for Software (CQM) is a methodology for evaluating the internal quality of a software product.

Software products are the computer programs, procedures, and possibly associated documentation and data pertaining to the operation of a computer system.

Software Product Evaluation Process is the activities, techniques, resources and documentation that enable verification/validation actions of a software product.

Why define CQM?

Optimyth has notice that its costumers have common problems and interests. So, there was the need of defining a methodology that was supported by tools, products and solutions. This methodology must guarantee that the QA solution adopted will provide the target benefits and will resolve the most common problems.

Having a defined methodology saves time and money in the quality assurance of development projects. When you cut time in implementation, you get extra benefits because you minimize the risks that surround this kind of projects: long project are risked projects.

What are the CQM principles?

Based on the ISO 9126 standard

Iso9126 is a software quality product standard. It defines all important software quality characteristics to evaluate in a quality process. It is well known by the community, so it permits everybody speak the same language.

Layer structured model

With CQM you will a get a unique indicator per software unit (application, project, change request, etc), but you can drill down. The first level will show you an indicator for each CQM software characteristic (security, reliability, efficiency, maintainability and portability). The next level contains the technical indicators, that divided the evaluation in each technology that makes up your software unit.

Normalized indicators

Each indicator shows you the information in the same way. So we can give you recommendations:

• 0-30 region. The characteristic pointed to by the indicator is in the RED zone. Improvements are needed.
• 30-70 region. Represented by YELLOW and means that you have to keep your mind on this indicator. Your next moves will depend on your requirements.
• 70-100 region. The GREEN zone. This is the zone where all indicators must be. No critical defects founded.

What are the benefits of using CQM?

You will get a measure of the software quality that allows you to:

• Abstract from technical layer. Your quality information will be independent from program languages and platforms.
• Compare different versions of the same software. This answers the most important question: has my software improved?
• Compare the quality of different applications. It does not matter if they are different kinds of applications or that they are developed in different technologies.
• Evaluate the technical requisites in order to accept the software from a third party provider.
• Aggregations of data. You can aggregate the quality information from different applications in order to get an evaluation of the software produced by a provider, a country or IT area compared to others.
• Continuous improvement process. You can apply a quality control methodology in your software life cycle process.

So next time you want to measure the quality of your software think Optimyth!

Meet the author Juan Pablo Tejela

Software Engineer with extensive experience as part of development teams, currently dedicated to consulting software product quality.

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