Report from Bill Curtis, Director of CISQ

CISQ Members and Prospective Members

Fourteen companies have already either joined CISQ or are in the process of doing so. Attendance at the Inaugural Executive Forums in Frankfurt, Germany and Arlington, USA was very strong.

To Request a Report

A complete report on both meetings was emailed to all attendees. To request a report, please email the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Executive Summary

—Initial CISQ Executive Forums were held in Frankfurt, Germany on November 12, 2009 and Arlington, Virginia on December 12, 2009. A broad range of organizations participated in each forum with many being from Fortune 200 companies. Morning presentations described the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, the Object Management Group, CISQ’s objectives, and the existing software standards related to CISQ’s objectives. The afternoon was devoted to open discussion of the most valuable quality issues CISQ could address for its members.

—The quality needs raised by forum participants were grouped into four categories; 1) specific quality attributes to be defined as quality measures in the CISQ standard, 2) infrastructure required to support these quality measures, 3) methods for integrating quality measures into life cycle and acquisition processes, and 4) primary uses for quality attribute measures. Participants wanted to prioritize the focus on application software, but did not want to artificially exclude system or embedded software. Votes tabulated across both meetings prioritized five software attributes for CISQ focus: maintainability, reliability, efficiency/performance, security, and functional size. Primary uses for these measures included controlling internal development, managing the quality of externally supplied software, estimating maintenance effort/costs, managing application portfolios, and assessing business disruption risk.

—Meeting participants that have not joined CISQ, but wish to participate in its activities, should sign up to join CISQ on its Website (www.it-cisq-org). CISQ will form five working groups during the first quarter of 2010. Four of these groups will focus on defining measures for the prioritized software attributes, and the fifth will focus on developing methods for using these measures. CISQ members have the option to assign delegates to any or all of the CISQ Technical Working Groups. Much of the work will be conducted virtually and coordinated by a Working Group Leader, but occasional working group meetings will be convened to initiate or finalize work products. The immediate next steps for organizations wanting to participate in CISQ are to 1) complete the process of joining CISQ, 2) assign an Executive contact for CISQ, and 3) assign delegates to technical working groups in which they wish to participate. Additional working group information will be sent in early January 2010.

CISQ Working Groups

As a result of the priorities discussed during the meeting, five technical working groups will be established during 2010.

1) Size measurement (focusing initially on automated Function Points)

2) Maintainability measurement

3) Reliability and Performance measurement

4) Security measurement

5) Best practices for integrating source code measures into development and acquisition processes

Next Steps

The next steps for organizations wishing to participate in CISQ are to:

1) Complete the process of joining CISQ

2) Assign an Executive contact for CISQ

3) Nominate delegates to the technical working groups you wish to participate in

Stay tuned for more information on plans and operational details for the technical working groups.