A Software Quality Metric for Proactive Quality Improvement
17 October 2000
Lucent Technologies is a vendor of electronic switching systems, highly complex integrated hardware/software systems that control routing of telephone calls through the telephone network. In this environment, software quality is a major concern. An operating switching system generates a continuous stream of report messages, known as the Voice of the Switch. Data from the Voice of the Switch is used to compute a Software Index, which is a measure of the quality of the software. The Software Index is used to create an Impact List, a prioritized list of software error messages, which provides a blueprint for engineers to direct their quality improvement efforts for maximum effectiveness. The Impact List identifies what to fix, in what order, and how much of an impact on quality the fix will have. The Impact List is used for proactive quality improvement, to fix software-related problems before they escalate into major crises. Usage of the Software Index and Impact List has caused engineers to become more aware of the quality impact of each software problem, and to be able to proactively intervene to fix software quality problems.