Tracie Berardi, Program Manager, Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ)
Rob Marvin published an article in the January issue of SD Times that details the work of the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ). Rob interviewed Dr. Richard Soley, CEO of the Object Management Group (OMG) and Dr. Bill Curtis, Executive Director of CISQ. The article sheds light on the state of software quality standards in the IT marketplace.
I can supplement what’s covered in the article for CISQ members.
CISQ was co-founded by the Object Management Group (OMG) and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in 2009.
Says Richard Soley of OMG, “Both Paul Nielsen (CEO, Software Engineering Institute) and I were approached to try to solve the twin problems of software builders and buyers (the need for consistent, standardized quality metrics to compare providers and measure development team quality) and SI’s (the need for consistent, standardized quality metrics to lower the cost of providing quality numbers for delivered software). It was clear that while CMMI is important to understanding the software development process, it doesn’t provide feedback on the artifacts developed. Just as major manufacturers agree on specific processes with their supply chains, but also test parts as they enter the factory, software developers and acquirers should have consistent, standard metrics for software quality. It was natural for Paul and I to pull together the best people in the business to make that happen.”
Richard Soley reached out to Dr. Bill Curtis to take the reins at CISQ. Bill Curtis is well-known in software quality circles as he led the creation of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and People CMM while at the Software Engineering Institute. Bill has published 5 books, over 150 articles, and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his career contributions to software process improvement and measurement. He is currently SVP and Chief Scientist at CAST Software.
“Industry and government badly need automated, standardized metrics of software size and quality that are objective and computed directly from source code,” he says.
Bill Curtis organized CISQ working groups to start work on specifications. The Automated Function Point (AFP) specification was led by David Herron of the David Consulting Group and became an officially supported standard of the OMG in 2013. Currently, Software Quality Measures for Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Maintainability are undergoing standardization by the OMG.
The SD Times article in which Dr. Curtis and Dr. Soley are cited – CISQ aims to ensure industry wide software quality standards – is a summary of these specifications and their adoption. Please read.
A media reprint of the article has been posted to the members area of the CISQ website.
You can also watch this video with Dr. Bill Curtis.
Later this year CISQ will start work on specs for Technical Debt and Quality-Adjusted Productivity.