ISO 9000-3: A Tool for Software Product and Process Improvement [Hardcover]

Raymond Kehoe (Author), Alka Jarvis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 5, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0387945687 | ISBN-13: 978-0387945682 | Edition: 1

The ISO 9000-3 Guideline is meant to serve as a guide for the application of the ISO 9001 Standard to the development, supply, and maintenance of software. The Standard and Guideline are being used throughout the software industry as a benchmark for software product and process quality. As yet few software organizations meet the process quality required to meet the Standard, but increasingly the industry will seek to ensure that software organizations are certified under the Standard. This book presents senior managers, software project managers and software developers with a simple, concise, step-by-step explanation of the Guideline and a hands-on means to implement practices and procedures needed to meet the requirements of the ISO 9001 Standard and the ISO 9000-3 Guideline. The authors discuss the principles and practice of software engineering and provide templates of engineering documents to accompany the Guideline. As a result, this book will help software companies define their own software engineering processes to develop high quality software products.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (October 5, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387945687
• ISBN-13: 978-0387945682
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,120,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ISO 9000-3 : Good book to have, December 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: ISO 9000-3: A Tool for Software Product and Process Improvement (Hardcover)

Very practical, easy to implement the ISO standards, practices and processes. If you are planning to register for this standards, the book will be good hand-book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling reasons to read this book ..., July 9, 2001

By 

Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ISO 9000-3: A Tool for Software Product and Process Improvement (Hardcover)

If you're a U.S. company that is not doing international business you might wonder why even bother with ISO 9000-3. While I can make compelling arguments for and against software and technical services companies pursuing registration, my stance would be dependent upon a set of conditions. With respect to applying the elements of ISO 9001 in accordance with guidelines for software development, supply and maintenance set forth in ISO 9000-3 I can only argue for.

The book: The first three chapters are brief and take only 24 pages to set the context. Chapter 1 introduces ISO 9000 as an international standard, discusses the relationship between 9001 and 9000-3, and gives good advice on the semantics of 9001's "shalls" and 9000-3's "shoulds". The next chapter provides an overview of software engineering and key elements in which 9000-3 will support. Chapter 3 discusses theory, concept, interpretation and critique of ISO 9000-3.

Chapter 4 comprehensively covers scope and overview, and provides a framework for the rest of the book. The key areas discussed in this chapter are the quality system framework, life cycle activities and supporting activities. Taken together these areas encompass ISO 9000-3. Chapters 5 through 23 are each devoted to a single area, giving you sufficient detail to understand the issues and factors. What I like most is the way the authors skillfully describe the contents of ISO 9000-3 guidelines in a readable manner without introducing ambiguity. Making specifications readable without introducing fuzziness or uncertainty is one of the most difficult aspects of technical writing and the authors manage this well.

An added bonus, and the reason I like this book so much, is the quality handbook that is provided in chapter 24. Including the eleven attachments, each of which in an invaluable artifact itself, this chapter is 50 pages in length (about 20% of the book), and serves as one of the best examples of a quality manual you'll find.

So, why even bother? First, you do not need to pursue ISO 9001 registration to benefit from this book (and if you are, you need to get a book on the ISO 9000:2000 version to get up-to-speed). If you are using the capability maturity model as a goal, the procedures given in this book map nicely to CMM process areas and practices. Moreover, in the "e" world where supply chain management is one of the current buzz words, the focus of 9000-3 might be a good fit into your operational posture (whether as a developer/integrator or service provider) because ISO 9000-3 is slanted towards the customer-supplier relationship, whereas the CMM is more concerned with suppliers. The real reason, however, for using 9000-3 guidelines is they will assure you of attaining repeatability in all of your key processes related to applications or service delivery, and will lay the foundation for any additional quality paradigm or framework you deploy in the future.