[SystemSafety] The dilemma of software process and dependability measurement

Steve Tockey Steve.Tockey at construx.com
Tue Nov 20 08:45:12 CET 2018


Olwen,

³That's why I never try to justify best practice techniques on the basis
of their contribution to process capability. I only ever try to justify
them on grounds of cost-saving due to earlier detection and correction
of errors.²

That is fine in principle, but the fairly obvious next question they will
ask is ³How much cost saving should I expect?² How do you answer that
question?


Cheers,

‹ steve




-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety <systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de>
on behalf of Olwen Morgan <olwen at phaedsys.com>
Date: Monday, November 19, 2018 at 7:35 AM
To: "systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de"
<systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de>
Subject: [SystemSafety] The dilemma of software process and dependability
measurement


On 16/11/2018 15:13, Steve Tockey wrote:
> Of course I wish I could have built several of exactly the same system
>in parallel. Unfortunately I have only been able to do that once. You
>realize it is too expensive to do that in the general case.


Actually, it's worse than Steve T suggests here.

If you compare the results from two processes, one with state-of-the-art
maturity and one of lesser maturity, then you immediately hit a
methodological dilemma. If the less mature process is so uncontrolled
that it is not reliably measurable, then you lack the necessary
metrological basis for a controlled comparison of process capabilities.
On the other hand, if the less mature process is at least mature enough
to permit reproducible measurement, then observable differences in
results may not be particularly salient.

That's why I never try to justify best practice techniques on the basis
of their contribution to process capability. I only ever try to justify
them on grounds of cost-saving due to earlier detection and correction
of errors.


Olwen


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