The purpose of Software Quality Assurance is to provide management with appropriate visibility into the process being used by the software project and of the products being built.
Software Quality Assurance involves reviewing and auditing the software products and activities to verify that they comply with the applicable procedures and standards and providing the software project and other appropriate managers with the results of these reviews and audits.
SSC San Diego projects shall:
1. Plan software quality assurance activities.
2. Objectively verify adherence of software products and activities to the applicable standards, procedures, and requirements.
3. Inform affected groups and individuals of software quality assurance activities and results.
4. Ensure that noncompliance issues that cannot be resolved within the software project are addressed by senior management.
5. Appoint a group to be responsible for coordinating and implementing SQA for the project (i.e., the SQA group).
6. Provide adequate resources and funding for performing the SQA activities.
7. Train members of the SQA group to perform their SQA activities.
8. Orient the members of the software project on the role, responsibilities, authority, and value of the SQA group.
9. Prepare a SQA plan for the software project according to a documented procedure.
10. Perform the SQA group's activities in accordance with the SQA plan.
11. Have the SQA group participate in the preparation and review of the project's software development plan, standards, and procedures.
12. Have the SQA group review the software engineering activities to verify compliance.
13. Have the SQA group audit designated software work products to verify compliance.
14. Have the SQA group periodically report the results of its activities to the software engineering group.
15. Document deviations identified in the software activities and software work products and handle according to a documented procedure.
16. Have the SQA group conduct periodic reviews of its activities and findings with the customer's SQA personnel, as appropriate.
17. Make and use measurements to determine the cost and schedule status of the SQA activities.
18. Review the SQA activities with senior management on a periodic basis.
19. Review the SQA activities with the project manager on both a periodic and event-driven basis.
20. Have experts independent of the SQA group periodically review the activities and software work products of the project's SQA group.
Software Project Managers are responsible for implementing this policy.
The Software Engineering Process Office (SEPO) is responsible for maintaining this policy.