Software Certifications

2006 CSQA Body of Knowledge
Knowledge Category 3

Quality Baselines (Assessments and Models)

Organizations need to establish baselines of performance for quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. These baselines are used to document current performance and document improvements by showing changes from a baseline. In order to establish a baseline, a model and/or goal must be established for use in measuring against to determine the baseline.

Quality Baseline Concepts

Baselines Defined
Types of Baselines
Conducting Baseline Studies

Methods Used for Establishing Baselines

Customer Surveys
Benchmarking to Establish a Baseline Goal
Assessments against Management Established Criteria (e.g. software requirements and user acceptance criteria)Assessments against Industry Models

Model and Assessment Fundamentals

Purpose of a Model
Types of Models (Staged and Continuous)
Model Selection Process
Using Models for Assessment and Baselines

Industry Quality Models

Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model Integration/CMMI (CMMI®)
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)
ISO 9001:2000
ISO/IEC 12207: Information Technology – Software Life Cycle Processes
ISO/IEC 15504: Process Assessment
Post-Implementation Audits

Bibliographic References

IMPORTANT: It is each candidate's responsibility to stay current in the field and to be aware of published works and materials available for professional study and development. Software Certifications recommends that candidates for certification continually research and stay aware of current literature and trends in the field. There are many valuable references that have not been listed here. These references are offered for informational purposes only.

Software Engineering Standards: A User's Roadmap: by James W. Moore. IEEE Computer Society, 1998.
International Standards Desk Reference: by Amy Zuckerman. AMACOM, 1996.
CMM in Practice: Processes for Executing Software Projects at Infosys: by Pankaj Jalote. Addison-Wesley, 1999. See Details
The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process: Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute. Addison-Wesley, 1995. See Details
Managing the Software Process: by Watts S. Humphrey. Addison-Wesley, 1990. See Details
A Discipline for Software Engineering: by Watts S. Humphrey. Addison-Wesley, 1995. See Details

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