Version 1.1 - 10/9/97

The purpose of Defect Prevention is to identify the cause of defects and prevent them from recurring.

Defect Prevention involves analyzing defects that were encountered in the past and taking specific actions to prevent the occurrence of those types of defects in the future. The defects may have been identified on other projects as well as in earlier stages or tasks of the current project. Defect prevention activities are also one mechanism for spreading lessons learned between projects.

1. Plan defect prevention activities.
2. Identify common causes of defects.
3. Prioritize and systematically eliminate common causes of defects.
4. Follow a written organizational policy for defect prevention activities.
5. Have an organization-level team to coordinate defect prevention activities.
6. Have a team to coordinate defect prevention activities for the software project.
7. Provide adequate resources and funding for the defect prevention activities at the project and organization levels.
8. Require training for the members of the software engineering group and other software-related groups in the performance of their defect prevention activities.
9. Ensure that the software project develops and maintains a plan for its defect prevention activities.
10. Meet at the beginning of a software task, with the members of the team performing the task to prepare for the activities of that task and the related defect prevention activities.
11. Conduct casual analysis meetings according to a documented procedure.
12. Have each of the teams assigned to coordinate defect prevention activities meet on a periodic basis to review and coordinate implementation of action proposals from the casual analysis meetings.
13. Ensure that defect prevention data are documented and tracked across the teams coordinating defect prevention activities.
14. Incorporate revisions to the organization’s standard software process resulting from defect prevention actions according to a documented procedure.
15. Incorporate revisions to the project’s defined software process resulting from defect prevention actions according to a documented procedure.
16. Provide feedback to the members of the software engineering group and software related groups on the status and results of the organization’s and project’s defect prevention activities on a periodic basis.
17. Make and use measurements to determine the status of the defect prevention activities.
18. Review the organization’s activities for defect prevention with senior management on a periodic basis.
19. Review the software project's activities for defect prevention with the project manager on both a periodic and event-driven basis.
20. Conduct reviews or audits by the software quality assurance group on the activities and work products for defect prevention and reports the results.

The SSC San Diego Commanding Officer is responsible for implementing this policy.