Quality Engineering

Definition

Quality Engineering

the activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to ensure and help continually improve the quality of an endeavor’s process and work products

Goals

The typical goals of quality engineering are to:

• Ensure that the necessary levels of quality are achieved.
• Make the achievement of quality predictable and repeatable.
• Minimize endeavor, organizational, and personal risks due to poor quality.

Objectives

The typical objectives of quality engineering are to:

• Define what quality means on the endeavor in terms of a quality model defining quality factors and quality subfactors.
• Plan the quality tasks including helping the requirements team determine and specify the quality requirements and associated quality factors (attributes) and quality metrics.
• Assure the quality of the process used by the endeavor.
  Thus, quality assurance is concerned with fulfilling the quality requirements and achieving the quality factors of the endeavor’s process.
  “Are we building the products right?”
• Control the quality of the work products delivered during the endeavor.
  Thus, quality control is concerned with fulfilling the quality requirements and achieving the quality factors of the endeavor’s work products.
  “Are we building the right products?”

Examples

Examples of quality engineering based on scope include:

• Application Quality Engineering
• Business Quality Engineering
• Contact Center Quality Engineering
• Data Center Quality Engineering

Preconditions

Quality engineering typically may begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The endeavor is started.
• The quality team is initially staffed and trained in quality engineering.

Completion Criteria

Quality engineering is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The endeavor is complete.

Tasks

Quality engineering involves the following teams performing the following quality engineering tasks:

• Quality Team, which performs:
  • Quality Planning
  • Quality Needs Assessment
  • Quality Modeling
  • Quality Assurance
  • Quality Control
• Process Team, which performs:
  • Quality Modeling
  • Quality Assurance
• Enterprise Team, which performs:
  • Quality Control
• Program Team, which performs:
  • Quality Control
• Project Team, which performs:
  • Quality Control

The following diagram illustrates the relationships between the quality tasks:

Environments

Quality engineering is typically performed using the following environment(s) and associated tools:

• Engineering Environment:
  • Configuration Management Tools for determining and obtaining the work products to be evaluated and audited
  • Database Management Systems for storing results.
  • Documentation Tools for producing the quality work products.
  • LowerCASE Tools for understanding how the process is used in practice.
  • Metrics Tools for obtaining quality metrics on the work products.
  • Process Engineering Tools for understanding the process to be assured.
  • Test Tools for understanding how testing is performed and for performing regression testing.
  • UpperCASE Tools for understanding how the process is used in practice.

Work Products

Quality engineering typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products:

• Quality Set::
  • Quality Plan
  • Audit Report
  • Endeavor Debrief Report
  • Inspection Reports
  • Inspection Summary Reports
  • Process Inspection Checklist
  • Review Materials
  • Review Report
• Model Set: :
  • Quality Model

Phases

Quality engineering tasks are typically performed during the following phases:

• Business Strategy: Ongoing
• Business Optimization: Ongoing
• Initiation: Ongoing
• Construction: Ongoing
• Delivery: Ongoing
• Usage: Ongoing
• Retirement: Ongoing

Guidelines

• This activity is documented using the typical configuration for large projects. It is intended to be configured (i.e., instantiated, extended, and tailored) to meet the needs of specific projects.
• The preconditions of this activity should be the union of the preconditions of its constituent tasks.
• The completion criteria for this activity should be the union of the postconditions of its constituent tasks.