international software & productivity engineering institute quality assurance with intspei...

International Software & Productivity Engineering Institute

Quality Assurance with INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework

V. Pavlov, O. Babich, A. Doroshenko,

T. Taganskaya, K. Zhereb

INTSPEI

QAMT-2007, November 1-2, Kyiv

Agenda

1. Software Quality Assurance

2. What is INTSPEI

3. INTSPEI approach to Quality Assurance

4. INTSPEI P-Modeling Methodology for SQA

5. An Example and Demo: INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework with MSF Agile

2QAMT-2007, November 1-2, Kyiv

Software Quality Assurance (SQA)(from Wikipedia)

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) consists of the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure quality.

SQA encompasses the entire software development process, which may include processes such as reviewing requirements documents, source code control, code reviews, change management, configuration management, release management and of course, software testing.


Agenda

1. Software Quality Assurance

2. What is INTSPEI





What is INTSPEI

The International Software and Productivity Engineering Institute (INTSPEI) is a multinational company with offices in New York and Kiev (Ukraine)

INTSPEI Mission -- Development and distribution of new software and productivity engineering technologies

INTSPEI goal is providing its customers with software products and services to make SDLC “better and faster”

“Better” means high level of quality, “faster” means increasing productivity and reducing costs

So, quality and productivity – are two mutually connected sides of the same “coin”


Research Background

INTSPEI was founded in the first quarter of 2007 on the base of original award-winning research conducted by its founders since 2001

A number of innovative findings form underlying background for INTSPEI services and products

The major ones that directly influence software quality are:

Speechless (pantomime) modeling

Reverse Semantic Traceability (RST)


A Brief History of INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework: First experiments

In 2001 Vladimir L. Pavlov developed a training program called “The Babel Experiment”

This training was a kind of experiment for students – they were to discover whether UML is “a real language” that is suitable and beneficial for a project team

There was a team of students to design a software system. They had a few hours to complete the task

During this timeframe verbal and written communication was forbidden, and the UML was the only allowed language (speechless modeling)


A Brief History of INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework: First experiments (ctnd)

This experiment achieves the following major goals: Make students go through communication problems that are

typical for large software development projects

Provide students with the successful experience of applying UML to overcome these problems

The Babel Experiment was always successfulEvery time students were able to find the common language

and generate the common ideas by UML communication, which led them to successful development of the proposed system model


A Brief History of INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework: First experiments (ctnd)

Once (accidentally) during this training there were two independent teams working on the same task. One team was limited to using only the UML language (and pantomime) in their communication. The other was allowed to use speech in addition to the UML

The first team (which was not allowed to use speech) coped with a task more successfully than the other team

Their diagrams were more sound, detailed, readable, elaborated and elegant


Further Experiments

The first author had conducted further experiments where a team of professional designers ”translated” some texts (of software requirements) from English to UML, and another team “translated” it back from UML to English, then original and restored texts were compared

These experiments have shown that UML is quite similar to traditional languages – original and restored technical texts often were semantically close (but not always)


Reverse Semantic Traceability

The main result of these experiments was not about UML and modeling – it was about testing and quality assurance

A real-life software development process is a sequence of “translations”

On every step there are usually some errors/misinterpretations, however, to find these errors people typically test the very final result – executable

But it is easy to test every step in the sequence – intermediate deliverables tested by independent testing team then are compared. Restored versions of artifacts serve as inputs to the next step

If no information is lost or misinterpreted – then it is OK to proceed to the next step, otherwise it is required to make some corrections

The authors call this simple approach “Reverse Semantic Traceability”


Agenda

1. Software Quality Assurance Issues

2. What is INTSPEI





INTSPEI Approach to Quality Assurance – Briefly

Speechless Modeling

Reverse Semantic Traceability

Both techniques are the base of INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework

Can enhance existing methodologies

Can be a standalone methodology


A Fundamental Observation (Where Should The Industry Improve?)


For large software development projects, the most important decisions and the most expensive mistakes are done at the beginning of the project

At the same time, the initial amount of quality control is minimal and then grows as development moves forward. This results in a costly rework (often hidden) on the late stages of the project

• Requirements

• Requirements

• Architecture

• Architecture • Detailed Design• Detailed Design

• Construction

• Construction

• Maintenance

• Phase That • a Defect is Corrected

• Phase That • a Defect is Created

• Cost to Correct

Cost to correct a defect greatly depends on how early it was introduced and revealed

Itera

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Dev

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Tra

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Man

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Popular Usage Scenarios

Validating UML models: Quality engineers restore a textual description of a domain, original and restored descriptions are compared

Validating model changes for a new requirement: Given original and changed versions of a model, quality engineers restore the textual description of the requirement; original and restored encryptions are compared

Validating a bug fix: Given an original and a modified source code, quality engineers restore a textual description of the bug that was fixed; original and restored descriptions are compared

Integrating a new software engineer into a team: A new team member gets an assignment to do Reverse Semantic Traceability for the key artifacts from the current projects

QAMT-2007, November 1-2, Kyiv 17

Current Experience Reports

The experience reports from current users of Reverse Semantic Traceability provide strong evidence of the method’s efficiency

The length of software development projects is cut down for 5 % – 35 %

The length of the integration period for new software developers is cut down for 25 % - 60 %


Agenda


2. What is INTSPEI



5. An Example and Demo : INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework with MSF Agile


Three Types of SDLCs

Agile• XP• SCRUM• MSF-Agile

Semantics-focused• P-Modeling

Framework

Heavy-weighed• SSADM• RUP• MSF-CMMi


INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework

INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework 1.0 is a set of software development process guidelines that extend existing methodologies with INTSPEI techniques

INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework doesn’t replace existing methodologies – it complements them

It contains guidelines, step-by-step working instructions, document templates and samples.

INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework allows to identify (and fix) bugs virtually immediately after their insertion, rather then staying hidden until the later stages of the development lifecycle, when the cost of fixing them grows tremendously.


INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework (ctnd)

So, INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework is a quality control facility that can be applied to all kinds of project artifacts

The main benefit is that (unlike the most existing approaches to quality control) it allows to make decisions on the early stages of development and evaluate them long before actual code is created

INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework is designed to integrate easily with existing methodologies

The current 1.0 version integrated with: IBM Rational Unified Process

Microsoft Solutions Framework for Agile Software Development,

Microsoft Solutions Framework for CMMI Process Improvement,

Open Unified Process.


Agenda

1. What is INTSPEI






Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF)

Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) is a deliberate and disciplined approach to technology projects based on a defined set of principles, models, disciplines, concepts, guidelines, and proven practices from Microsoft

MSF for Agile Software Development is an agile software engineering process that incorporates key ideas from the Agile software movement, along with principles and practices from the MSF


MSF Latest Version

Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) version 4.0 is a combination of a meta-model on which processes are built, and two instantiations of that metamodel

One of the instantiations is an agile software development process and the other targets a more formal environment


MSF for Agile Basics

Roles

Workstreams and activities

Work items and work products

Views (disciplines, tracks, cycles)

Reports, queries, how-to’s

Overview pages


MSF Structure

Process guidanceHTML documentation

describes process

can be used as stand-alone guide or on team site

Process templateIntegration with Team Foundation Server (TFS)

Customizing work items, queries and reports

Contains process guidance


Points of Integration

New activities – Perform RST/Speechless Sessions

New discipline – Traceability Management

New menu item – P-Modeling

New work products – RST report, Prioritization Table

New fields in all work items and queries supporting them


P-Modeling Tab

Additional menu on INTSPEI products and latest versions

Main menu on INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework

New discipline:Traceability

Management

New activity: Performing RST

References: http://www.intspei.com/

Pavlov, Vladimir; Yatsenko, Anton “’The Babel Experiment’: An Advanced Pantomime-based Training in OOA&OOD with UML”, 36th ‘ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education’, February 25, 2005.

Pavlov, Vladimir; Busygin, Stanislav; Boyko, Nikita; Babich, Alexander;“Is There Still a Room For Programmers' Productivity Improvement?”, Proceedings of the 5th East-West Design and Test Symposium (EWDTS'07), 2007, pp. 146-151.

Pavlov, Vladimir; Boyko, Nikita; Babich, Alexander; “First Experience of Using INTSPEI P‑Modeling Framework in Software Development Projects”, Problems in Programming, Issue 2, May 2007.

INTSPEI P-Modeling Framework Whitepaper, INTSPEI, http://www.intspei.com


http://www.intspei.com/

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QAMT-2007, November 1-2, Kyiv

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