Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering [Hardcover]

Stephen H. Kan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1994

If you need to understand how to measure software quality and how to use measurements to improve your software development, you will want to have a copy of this book. Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering provides the information and teaches the skills you need to measure and improve the quality of the entire software development process from high-level to low-level design, as well as all phases of reliability. Joining action plans with actual project experiences, this book focuses on using - not just describing - metrics. It provides detailed coverage of essential issues and techniques, including software metrics, software reliability models, and models and analysis of program complexity. Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering goes even further, discussing such topics as in-process metrics, defect removal effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and more. Numerous real-life examples, many taken from the author's experience as the software quality focal point for IBM's Baldrige Award-winning AS/400, show you how to put the theories and techniques to work. The book also contains examples from such major computer companies as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory. This excellent balance of theory, techniques, and examples makes for a highly-instructive and practical book on one of the most important topics in software development. "I've devoted considerable space to Kan's Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering because I believe it is an important book that bridges the worlds of industrial statistical process control and software engineering. The AS/400 software is a large, complex and very successful product for IBM. Kan provides insights into the methods IBM used to control the quality in this project which provide lessons that we would all do well to study." -Software Development "The concise and clear explanation of function point counting is a jewel. Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering If you are looking for just one book on metrics, this is a good choice." -The Northwest C++ Users Group newsletter 0201633396B04062001

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Joining action plans with actual project experiences, this book focuses on using - not just describing - metrics. It provides detailed coverage of essential issues and techniques, including software metrics, software reliability models, and models and analysis of program complexity. Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering goes even further, discussing such topics as in-process metrics, defect removal effectiveness, customer satisfaction, and more. Numerous real-life examples, many taken from the author's experience as the software quality focal point for IBM's Baldrige Award-winning AS/400, show you how to put the theories and techniques to work. The book also contains examples from such major computer companies as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory.

This excellent balance of theory, techniques, and examples makes for a highly-instructive and practical book on one of the most important topics in software development.

"I've devoted considerable space to Kan's Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering because I believe it is an important book that bridges the worlds of industrial statistical process control and software engineering. The AS/400 software is a large, complex and very successful product for IBM. Kan provides insights into the methods IBM used to control the quality in this project which provide lessons that we would all do well to study." -Software Development

"The concise and clear explanation of function point counting is a jewel. Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering If you are looking for just one book on metrics, this is a good choice." -The Northwest C++ Users Group newsletter

About the Author

Stephen H. Kan is Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM) and a technical manager in programming for IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. As process manager of the quality management process in product development for IBM's eServer iSeries software development, his responsibilities include quality goal setting, supplier quality requirements, quality plans, in-process metrics, field quality status, and quality and project assessments. Dr. Kan has been a faculty member of the Master of Science in Software Engineering program at the University of Minnesota since 1998. He is certified by the American Society for Quality as a Quality Engineer, a Reliability Engineer, and a Quality Manager, and by the Project Management Institute as a Project Management Professional. 0201633396AB08212002

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1st edition (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201633396
• ISBN-13: 978-0201633399
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,053,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of software quality metrics, June 9, 1999

By 

Glenn Booker (Cherry Hill, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering (Hardcover)

I use this to teach a class on metrics for Drexel University.The material is inherantly dry, but Kan covers it clearly and well. Agood balance is struck between product metrics (e.g. reliability) and broader metrics (customer satisfaction).

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent compilation of SQA methodology and application, October 9, 1998

By 

John Beeman ([e-mail]) (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering (Hardcover)

Kan highlights a great many development and analysis techniques with just enough supporting detail to be instructional and informative without being pedantic. Good information pertaining to the overall development lifecycle as well as to components of various phases of a lifecycle (predictive analyses, reflective metrics, customer satisfaction measurement, etc) are included. Each chapter contains an excellent reference bibliography that allows the reader to pursue greater detail on a subject matter if necessary. And the book itself contains a very comprehensive index section that aids in topic referencing. Highly recommended.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Ed. even better!, July 8, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)

This is one of the most highly regarded books on software quality. If you have never read the first edition it was one of the few books that covered software quality in depth, going well beyond metrics and models into strategies for achieving quality, and understanding the underlying principles and mechanics. That edition had a lot of life left in it, but this second edition is one of the most complete rewrites of any technical book I've read in recent memory, and if you own the first edition you may want to consider retiring it and investing in this edition.

While the first edition packed a lot of information in 344 pages, the 560 pages that comprise this edition reflect new chapters and expanded content in the chapters that remain. Here is a list of the new chapters:

- Chapter 10, In-Process Metrics for Software Testing
- Chapter 12, Metrics and Lessons Learned for Object-Oriented Projects (in lieu of the old Chapter 12 titled AS/400 Quality Management)
- Chapter 13, Availability Metrics
- Chapter 15, Conducting In-Process Quality Assessments
- Chapter 16, Conducting Software Project Assessments (the project assessment questionnaire example in the appendix is a valuable companion to this chapter)
- Chapter 17, Dos and Don'ts of Software Process Improvement (contributed by Patrick O'Toole)
- Chapter 18, Using Function Point Metrics to Measure Software Process Improvement (Contributed by Capers Jones)

Among the new chapters I most like are Availability Metrics (Chapter 13), because of the direct tie to production, and Dos and Don'ts of Software Process Improvement (Chapter 17) because of the practical and objective advice. This book will remain, in my opinion, one of the definitive texts on software quality and is one I highly recommend.