QA Plan

21CSI: Committed to Quality

21CSI's quality activities take place throughout the entire life of a project, because we understand that quality can only be achieved if it is a constant and measurable process. We understand that quality must be engineered into a product; it cannot be added in.

Quality Assurance Activities
21CSI maintains an independent Quality Assurance (QA) team. The independence of this team is assured since the QA team reports directly to 21CSI's executive management and not to a program manager. The mission of the QA team is:

• To improve software quality by monitoring both the software and the development process that produces it.
• To ensure full compliance with standards for the software and software processes.
• To ensure that any inadequacies in the product, the process or the standards are addressed and resolved.

21CSI plans to achieve these goals through the auditing of project artifacts. These audits will be performed quarterly by the QA team. Inspection categories will include, as applicable:

1. Contractual Obligations
2. Project Documents
3. Project Schedule, Spirals, and Milestones
4. Project Demonstration
5. Validation and Verification Processes
6. Development Processes
7. Installation and Training Processes
8. Other Processes as relevant to the project

Inspections will be based on process policies and project status. Inspection results will be recorded in a central repository and placed under configuration management. Findings will be presented to executive management personnel and items requiring further action shall be identified. Project management personnel are responsible for correcting noncompliance issues and for coordinating remedial audits with the QA team according to a schedule approved by executive management. The process improvement board will be responsible for addressing process deficiencies. Deficiencies in both products and projects shall be placed in a central QA defect repository and tracked to resolution.

Validation and Verification
21CSI utilizes several methods for Validation and Verification (V&V) activities to ensure that all products are of the highest quality and that customer expectations are met:

Peer Reviews
Peer reviews are performed on all product code and development documents to support proper verification. Formal peer reviews are performed on all new artifacts and artifacts that have undergone changes considered to be significant. Formal peer reviews are performed by at least the author(s) of the artifact, two or more experienced staff members, a scribe and a QA representative.

Informal peer reviews are performed on preexisting artifacts that have undergone changes that are considered minor. Informal peer reviews are performed by an experienced staff member and the author(s) of the artifact under review.

Unit Testing
Unit testing is performed on all software code to support proper validation. Unit tests are written by the author of the related code under test, and undergo peer review. Unit tests are maintained in the same configuration management repository as the related product code. 21CSI plans to implement a process that ensures 100% coverage of the unit tests.

Functional Software Testing
21CSI maintains a software testing team to support proper validation. Software test team members are required to have strong technical backgrounds and receive on the job training. Cyclic deliveries of software products are made to the testing team in intervals as appropriate to the project schedule, but no more than six months apart.

Software is tested in an environment that mirrors the target operating environment of the product as closely as is feasible to ensure proper validation.