Robustness Development and Reliability Growth

by John P. King, William S. Jewett

2010 · Pearson Education

This book integrates key tools and processes into a comprehensive program for developing more robust and reliable technology-based products. Drawing on their extensive product development experience, the authors present a complete process for ensuring product performance throughout the entire lifecycle, from understanding customers’ needs through manufacturing and post-launch support. The authors begin by presenting broad insights and high-level strategies for improving product quality. Next, they demonstrate how to implement robustness and reliability strategies that complement existing governance and decision processes. A section on tools and methods shows how to institutionalize best practices and apply them consistently. Finally, they tie strategies, decisions, and methods together through a case study project. Product developers will learn how to Understand critical drivers of value in technology products, including reliability and durability Implement a process model and roadmap for improving reliability and robustness Increase robustness early in development, leading to shorter cycle times in later phases Improve the stability of production performance under stress conditions Assess both organizational and process capabilities for delivering robust and reliable products Understand and manage customer-driven requirements Use tools including descriptive and inferential statistics and DOE-based empirical models Managers will understand expectations for Design concepts supported by rigorous analyses of alternatives Products and processes delivering higher value to customers Products with higher reliability and longer useful lives Product processes with lower costs and higher capabilities Development projects having shorter, more predictable cycle times Readers are introduced to many thought leaders whose writings can be sources of further learning. This book is a valuable resource for anyone responsible for delivering reliable, profitable technology products, including general managers, program managers, engineers, scientists, and reliability and quality professionals.

Measuring the Software Process

by William A. Florac, Anita D. Carleton

1999 · Addison-Wesley Professional

"While it is usually helpful to launch improvement programs, many such programs soon get bogged down in detail. They either address the wrong problems, or they keep beating on the same solutions, wondering why things don't improve. This is when you need an objective way to look at the problems. This is the time to get some data." Watts S. Humphrey, from the Foreword This book, drawing on work done at the Software Engineering Institute and other organizations, shows how to use measurements to manage and improve software processes. The authors explain specifically how quality characteristics of software products and processes can be quantified, plotted, and analyzed so the performance of software development activities can be predicted, controlled, and guided to achieve both business and technical goals. The measurement methods presented, based on the principles of statistical quality control, are illuminated by application examples taken from industry. Although many of the methods discussed are applicable to individual projects, the book's primary focus is on the steps software development organizations can take toward broad-reaching, long-term success. The book particularly addresses the needs of software managers and practitioners who have already set up some kind of basic measurement process and are ready to take the next step by collecting and analyzing software data as a basis for making process decisions and predicting process performance. Highlights of the book include: Insight into developing a clear framework for measuring process behavior Discussions of process performance, stability, compliance, capability, and improvement Explanations of what you want to measure (and why) and instructions on how to collect your data Step-by-step guidance on how to get started using statistical process control If you have responsibilities for product quality or process performance and you are ready to use measurements to manage, control, and predict your software processes, this book will be an invaluable resource.