Markus Ketterer

An industrial case study of implementing and validating defect classification for process improvement and quality management

Defect measurement plays a crucial role when assessing quality assurance processes such as inspections and testing. To systematically combine these processes in the context of an integrated quality assurance strategy, measurement must provide empirical evidence on how effective these processes are and which types of defects are detected by which quality assurance process. Typically, defect classification schemes, such as ODC or the Hewlett-Packard scheme, are used to measure defects for this purpose. However, we found it difficult to transfer existing schemes to an embedded software context, where specific document- and defect types have to be considered. This paper presents an approach to define, introduce, and validate a customized defect classification scheme that considers the specifics of an industrial environment. The core of the approach is to combine the software engineering know-how of measurement experts and the domain know-how of developers. In addition to the approach, we present the results and experiences of using the approach in an industrial setting. The results indicate that our approach results in a defect classification scheme that allows classifying defects with good reliability, that allows identifying process improvement actions, and that can serve as a baseline for evaluating the impact of process improvements

Why does it take that long? Establishing Product Lines in the Automotive Domain

The automotive industry supplies the world with a tremendous variability of vehicles, fulfilling a wide range of legal requirements all around the world while addressing their owners needs and preferenqces from lowest cost to extreme luxury. As a global supplier in the powertrain domain, Bosch Gasoline Systems (GS) addresses this challenge by establishing a product line approach in the software development for gasoline engine control units, supported by process improvement initiative. Several characteristics of the powertrain domain strongly affected the feasible solutions and the time scale. Specific customer relations, complexity and variability of the physical system and a large organization require patience and continuity to be successful with product lines. The achievements of the GS approach are the ability of market oriented development, measurement of the product line success and a continuous control and improvement of product quality.