Practical Guide to Software Quality Management (Artech House Computing Library) [Hardcover]

John W. Horch (Author)

Book Description

Series: Artech House Computing Library | Publication Date: January 31, 2003

For professionals who need to design, implement or manage a quality software program, this volume identifies ten major components that make up a solid program in line with ISO 9001 quality management precepts. This second edition is expanded by over 20 per cent, with updated references, text revisions and new chapters on software safety and software risk management. It seeks to provide the starting points for a standardized documentation system, and better understanding of the individual program components and how they integrate to form the whole system.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John W. Horch is certified as a Software Quality Analyst, Software Quality Examiner and Software Test Engineer. He presently verifies and validates documentation and software development programs on behalf of government and commercial clients and presents software quality seminars and workshops worldwide. A senior member of the IEEE and the ASQ, Dr. Horch chaired the IEEE Computer Society Software Subcommittee for 7 years. He holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in information systems.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Artech House Publishers; 2 edition (January 31, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580535275
• ISBN-13: 978-1580535274
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,979,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blueprint for 'building' a quality organization, July 7, 2001

By 

Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Guide to Software Quality Management (Artech House Computer Science Library) (Paperback)

After I finished reading this 259-page book I kept thinking of how it was organized and how the author presented the material. Although I have been exposed to, and worked within, quality frameworks throughout my 25-year career this book triggered a clarity that brought together the essence of an effective quality program. This happened when I drew an analogy between the book's contents and approach, and constructing a building.

First, the book starts with a chapter titled "Elements of a Complete Software Quality System," which is the foundation. It then covers what I think of as the building blocks: standards, reviews, testing, defect analysis, configuration management and software documentation. It then fills in gaps, much like mortar, by covering associated quality concerns. Each of these "building blocks" and the "mortar" are thoroughly discussed in separate chapters. The actual construction comes in the final chapter titled "Quality System Implementation".

This book is copiously illustrated and the writing is straightforward. Although my analogy may be somewhat distracting, nothing in this book is - each chapter stays focused on its topic and goes into considerable depth. The author provides you with a solid foundation, quality materials and a blueprint for creating an effective quality organization, and does so in 259 pages. This book earns five stars for the influence it had on my thinking, and has my highest recommendation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Broad, shallow, and seems rather dated, but some useful stuff., March 3, 2007

By 

lighten_up_already2 "lighten_up_already2" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practical Guide to Software Quality Management (Artech House Computer Science Library) (Paperback)

I've been in software development for over 20 years, and now I'm starting a full-time QA job, so I'm loading up on book about software quality management.

I'm sure glad I bought this used instead of new! It's great as a general overview of the basic software quality management concepts, but there's not a whole lot of depth here. It's a lot of "what to do" without much help on exactly how to do it, though I will say that the few sample forms and planning outlines are helpful.

On aspect of this book I found partucularly disappointing is that is seems dated. Sure enough, it was written just over ten years ago, before a lot of the current intranet deployed collaboration software became widely used. So, rather then start printing all those forms you need to run your software QA system, just put them on your "Quickplace" or "Sharepoint" workplace collaboration system.

So, this might be a good first book on software quality management, but it had better not be your last.

3.0 out of 5 stars A solid addition to any SQA library., December 25, 2005

By 

Steven Allison "The Quality Guy" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Guide to Software Quality Management (Artech House Computing Library) (Hardcover)

This book won't win any awards for being flashy; however, it is a very well written introduction into the world of SQM. Well organized, with the key points consistently reinforced. A quick read that makes you hungry enough to pick up on the key points and explore them in more detail. If you're new to world of software quality, or only have a couple years worth of experience then this is a good purchase for you.