Design patterns are high level building blocks that are claimed to promote elegance in object-oriented programs by increasing flexibility, scalability, usability, reusability, and robustness. However, there is some evidence that design patterns do not intrinsically promote quality. We believe that the problem of quality with design patterns comes both from the design patterns themselves and from their misuse. Unfortunately, little work has attempted so far to study the quality characteristics of design patterns rigorously. The objective of this technical report is to introduce a quality model and metrics that help in assessing the quality characteristics of design patterns and in concluding on design patterns quality. We begin with a summary of definitions on quality and related concepts and by introducing the most common and standard quality models. Then, we define characteristics of the models in details and present the metrics used to measure programs. Some of the most common characteristics of quality models

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Abstract. When searching for information within a distributed heterogeneous environment, it is often difficult to ascertain the quality of the obtained results. Sometimes it may be possible to estimate the quality, but as the amount of available information grows this becomes increasingly difficult and time consuming. One possible solution is to develop a method of using quality as a filter to reduce the amount of irrelevant information that is returned by customising it to a user’s requirements, defined in terms of quality characteristics. Before this can be done the general term ‘quality ’ must be explicitly defined, and its characteristics identified. This paper therefore discusses our research into creating a domain-independent taxonomy of quality that can be used to assist in information evaluation and filtering within various information retrieval environments. 1

The notion of viewpoints as a means of eliciting and formulating requirements is now well known. However, there is little practical evidence that viewpoint-based requirements methods scale up to address real problems. This paper presents a detailed case-study based on medium sized system, and illustrates how a viewpoint-based requirements method can be used to structure and formulate the system requirements. The case study is also intend as a shared example for other researchers in requirements engineering to test their techniques and methods. The case-study is based on an electronic document delivery and interchange system (EDDIS). The paper presents the EDDIS requirements they appeared in the original user requirements document. A brief description is provided of VORD, the requirements method used, and developed through the formulation of EDDIS requirements. The paper concludes by outlining the lessons learnt from applying VORD to EDDIS and proposes a set of 10 comparators that other researchers can use to compare their approaches and techniques.

An investigation is described into the application of quality function deployment (QFD) and case based reasoning (CBR) to software quality assessment. It is believed that the integration of CBR and QFD may be an effective means of supporting the development of quality software. The main aim in the research is to develop a CBR oriented software quality advisor to support the attainment of quality in software development, by reference to quality case histories using software modules from previous designs. A model linking CBR and QFD mechanisms is presented. Current work is centred on the development of a prototype system in the form of a shell incorporating an interface linking the user requirements, the QFD and CBR mechanisms, and supported by a dynamic library of case histories. Keywords: case-based reasoning, quality function deployment, software quality 1. Introduction In this paper, current work is described in a project investigating the application of quality function deployment...

. Quality is a concept which is hard to define and measure. Within software engineering, the term quality is usually taken to mean software product quality. However, with increasing awareness and focus on the software development process, quality considerations should be applied here as well. An interesting approach is to consider if the current way of doing product quality assessments can be applied to software processes. 1. Introduction Quality appears to be one of the most fundamental concepts in our lives (Pirsig, 1974). Quality is `hard to define, impossible to measure, easy to recognise' (Kitchenham, 1989). However, this should not keep us from being conscious about quality since constantly reminding ourselves of the difficulty and uncertainty of quality considerations most certainly will not improve anything at all. Software development can be considered as comprised by three basic components: Products, processes and resources (Fenton, 1991). In the context of quality assessmen...

This paper demonstrates the difference between theoretical quality design and practical quality issues and problems, as these were documented for a typical software project. The aim of this paper is to share with readers conclusions based on over ten years of experience in software projects management and research in the field of software quality assurance by presenting simple issues related to the design, implementation and delivery of a typical software project. The project presented in this paper serves as a model of a typical software project (case study), in an effort to offer specific practical examples for demonstrating the practical quality issues and problems arising in the majority of software projects. Both the initial design of the quality and the practical issues that arose during implementation affecting final product quality are discussed in this paper. Moreover, the gap existing, in some cases, between theory and practice is presented.

A quality model links together and defines the various software metrics and measurement techniques that an organisation uses which when measured, the approach taken must be sufficiently general for hybrid hardware and software systems. In this work factors in software quality that should be taken into account when using parallel architectures will be considered. We start by identifying the metrics and measurement approaches that can be used. Many of the quality factors would be applied in similar way for serial and parallel machines, however a number of factors will be investigated which are relevant to the parallel class. A major example will be the lack of suitable performance metrics, which affect the cost/benefit factors. Portability and usability are other major problems that need to be taken into account when considering all the relevant factors that affect quality for the new environment.

The extent to which software quality is seen as an issue by IS professionals in Hong Kong, and the practices employed to achieve quality is investigated. One-hundred and seventy-five IS professionals were surveyed to obtain answers to the following questions: What definition of "quality" is being used? What, if any, techniques are being used to ensure a quality product? It will be shown that "quality" is defined chiefly in terms of reliability and maintainability. However, there are few techniques in common use by those respondents that claim to be following a software quality assurance (SQA) approach. When asked about the problems in employing a SQA approach the main reason given was that it is time consuming, with some support for the view that SQA is costly and lacks management support. This research clearly defines the problems Hong Kong IS professionals perceive in pursuing SQA, and sets the groundwork for the initiatives by major industrial organisations in Hong Kong for quality improvement.

Within the complex systems developed throughout the aerospace industry, software is playing an increasingly important role in mission success. Methods for developing and assuring software are often not well understood by program managers and, thus, are often simply ignored. In such a case, ignorance is far from bliss; it is dangerous. During the past few years, NASA has emphasized the faster, better, and cheaper approach to developing missions, thereby making it more important than ever to ensure the quality of its software products. It is this imperative that makes