A Set of Work Products - Essay Example

Software Quality Management Introduction This report details the discussion of a set of work products, identified and analyzed as whether the outcomes of their requirement elicitation process are met. It discusses the details of why the analyzed set of products were chosen, whether the process outcomes met the requirements. The report also mentions the analysis of two process attributes set for Capability level 2, the products chosen to meet the details of the two parameters and a summary of the additional characteristics. The work products that were chosen for this analysis are spreadsheet, contact management, word processor, calculator and media player. The requirement elicitation process for this set of work products was done through several methods like, interviewing end users, conducting workshops on identifying requirements, brainstorming, use cases, role plays and developing a demo of the final product. Additional work products were found for each main product of the basic set and were detailed on how they contribute to the achievement of the outcome. The report is structured with the detailed description of how the requirement analysis for each work product attributes to the successful implementation of each attribute of the outcome. This is followed with the findings of additional work products and their relationship with the basic set. Finally the report is concluded with the analysis of additional characteristics, if any, for each of the work products in the basic set. The report shows how the selected products satisfy the attributes specified by the Capability level 2 of the Capability Maturity Model. (Paulik, M. C. ,1995) Requirement Elicitation of Spreadsheet software. The first of the basic set of work products that was analyzed was the Spreadsheet software. One of the examples of spreadsheet software was Gnumeric. This deliverable was chosen since it was able to meet the expectations of the end users. The software was able to perform the required functionalities at par with other existing software of same kind. The requirement elicitation of the Gnumeric software was done through brainstorming technique and conducting a research on the requirements of the user needs. The analysis on the post-requirement elicitation process shows that the attributes of the outcome were met successfully. The process of how it met is explained below. (n.d. ,2009) Initially the planning was done among the management levels. The planning was ultimately divided into business, program and project. Once the planning was done, the requirement analysis was documented. The clients were interviewed and brainstormed to identify all possible requirements that they want the software to do. These include the conversion of any kind of data files to CSV or ledger based accounting table format. These requirements were base lined and were documented. They had a version control manager associated with the development team. This had the control of updating the software as and when any changes are done. The software had a help feature which would send the reports of any errors or runtime exceptions to the change management group. This ensured that customer faced bugs are fixed. The online help care associated with the software development team ensured that the customer's needs and future updates are done at the earliest time. (Demiriirs, E. et. al. 1998) The additional work products that help in achieving the entire functionality of the Gnumeric are histogram tool and Image filling work product. These work products helped to achieve the baselined requirements of creating charts from source data. Their special characteristics are that they are easily updatable and platform independent. Requirement Elicitation of Calculator software. The basic criteria for the selection of FreeCalc software in Calculator category, was that it was able to exceed the functionalities and expectations of other work products in the same category. This product detailed on the requirements category, met with the baselined requirements in the document, and met with the expectations of the end users. Below are the detailed reasons of how the product met with the outcomes of the requirements elicitation process. The product was identified and the business perspective of how it can be merged with other business processes was listed out. An interview was done to identify the users of the software. Their impact on the development of this application was determined. The entire requirement for this product was developed based on the list of wishes as requested by the stake holders. User manuals, flow charts were prepared to list out all the possible scenarios that could happen while developing the product. All the requirements were documented unambiguously and properly baselined. Future requirements were discussed and meted with feedbacks from customers. (Rout, P. T. 2003) A separate feedback form and a dynamic update method ensured that the product was monitored and updated according to the future needs. Resources were allocated to handle the error reports and bug fix management. The documents were separated according to the type of users. For an expert level user a system level requirement document was prepared. For layman users, a user requirement manual was prepared. Additional tools that helped the main product achieve its requirements and quality were tape saving and generation of amortization reports, color scheme technique and application of algebraic logic product. These were unique functions helping in both business process satisfaction and user level satisfaction. It had a visible space to view the value in memory. The acquisition process was done properly satisfying the outcome of it wherein a policy on acquisition , deliverable tenure and an agreement between the customer and the developer has been made. The additional characteristics that could be added to the product could include addition of tuccows. Requirement Elicitation of Word processor software. The word processor work product is probably the best product out of the basic set satisfying the requirements and achieving the capability level 2. The selected product in this category is AbiWord word processor. The reasons for accepting this as the one meeting the attributes of the outcome of requirement elicitation process is given below. Satisfied the customer needs with providing the same product in all kinds of languages so that all persons from different countries could understand the software better. The features are in terms with the condition spaced out in the future requirements in the requirements manual. The user interface is simple compared to its competitive products. Makes it ideal to write on. The product is developed with passing through the life cycles of primary and organizational needs. These include engineering, quality assurance, validation and change request management. The additional products that yield to the successful satisfaction of the outcome attributes are the pop up previews for font styles, a connection with web services and an online help guide for the customer. The process outcome that gets satisfied along with the work product includes the satisfaction of requirements related with finance, technical and project. The supplier, user relationships also get satisfied in the process outcome. (Lachowiz, D., 2009) Apart from these, the requirement specification was in vision with customer's view. The baselined requirements formed the baseline for evolving future requirements. The tracing of requirements was done through all the possible requirement analysis techniques. The performance of the process was time lined, and it spanned the entire cycle time and the usage of resources was done equally involving all of them for the evolution purpose. The management level organization was done to near perfection with the work product meeting with the deadline, the deadline here being the requirements not becoming outdated before they could be satisfied. As a result the performance was managed to the top mark level with the products delivered with the matching objectives. Apart from performance based management of the process, the product based work management including the requirements related to both categories, that is, both the functional and the non -functional types were satisfied. The change management team ensured that the change requests were going on in a measurable rate and at the same time the quality of the product was maintained. The additional work products were added to the basic product in such a way that the changes that occur due to the additional products have minimal effect over the basic product. Only the additional product goes again for final review instead of the entire product. (Hysell, D, 1999). These details ensured that the work product has met with outcomes of the requirement elicitation process and hence can be considered as a successful implementation. Additional characteristics that can be included with the above software would be dynamic changing of grammatical errors and popping out the possible results instead of manual change that has to be done with the current software. Requirement Elicitation of contact management software. The work product in this category of contact management software is free CRM. It is a free work product that can be used for online as well as offline management of contact information with an additional purpose of sales force automation. The reasons for choosing this product, out of many in the world are given below. The goals of the business according to the organizations need were detailed in the requirement, and most importantly they were met with the software. The improvement of the process cycle was started with requirement elicitation and performance monitoring. The tasks were prioritized as to what are all the common functionalities that the end user would use the software for and then the process of how it is done with advancement from other compatible work products is found out. Once the requirements were elucidated and the tasks were initialized, the scope is defined and the improvement was seen in prototype software development model. After the first stage of improvement plan and the request or necessary changed from the client side, the software was rebuilt with up-to date technologies and was given back on time to the customer. The improvements get implemented and the process gets repeated for frequent intervals until the reassessment result shows nil faults. The improvement gains are measured against time and resource utilization and the profit is calculated. Since the profit is large in this product, the measure of the gain is continuously improved through the same process and the performance is monitored. Regarding the process improvement performances, the objectives related with the performance measurements are identified. Once identified, a time is given for planning. This includes different tools and models. After undergoing through this process, the performance measures are put into action in the process models and the results are monitored. The performance related operations were carried out under controlled environment. The process were not verified and agreed upon until the requirements were met and the product was continuously monitored and tested. The level 2 of Capability Maturity Model was completely satisfied on the basis of product related qualities. Regarding work product assessments at level 2, they were arranged, worked out and reviewed as and when they deviate from the expected results. (CRM Asp, 2009). The additional work products along with the basic product include automated sales team management, email management and campaigning calls. The technical support that is afforded too is of superior service. The other additional characteristics that could be included are additional sharing of documents to persons in use with other related products. Cross compatibility is the order of the hour for this work product. Conclusion Each of the above discussed work products, has gathered information regarding their requirement processing, processed them following all the standards and have kept in contact with the customers pulse of requirements. Each have their specific research units that could identify what the customer needs could be in future and deliver accordingly. They have controlled the number of changes to the existing work products and continuously monitored the needs of the customer. Their enhancements have kept up with the same kind of requirement analysis standard and the impact of each enhancement too is managed controllably. The report has provided valid facts, providing appropriate rationale and supporting details for the selection of different work products in different categories. The evidences provided have also shown that attributes corresponding to capability level 2 have been achieved and the other supportive work products generated along with main product also have contributed to a great effect. Hence, all the types of work products as discussed are relevant to the Capability level 2 of the Capability maturity model. References Paulik, M. C. (1995). How ISO9001 compares with the CMM. 74-82. Rout, P. T. (2003). Software process improvement and practice. London:John Wiley and Sons. Demiriirs, E. et. al. (1998) Process Improvement Towards IS0 9001 Certification in a Small Software Organization. 435-482. Hysell, D.(1999). IS0 9001: TRADITIONS BEFORE AND AFTER. 99-104. (n.d). (2009). Welcome to Gnumeric! Retrieved from: http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/ Lachowiz, D. (2009). Abiword-Wordprocessing for everyone. Retrieved from : http://www.abisource.com/tour/ CRM Asp. (2009). FreeCRM.com Retrieved from: http://www.freecrm.com/index.html Read More