Comparing ISO 9000, Malcolm Baldrige, and the SEI CMM for Software: A Reference and Selection Guide

By Michael O. Tingey

Choose the right software quality methodology, and make it work efficiently.KEY TOPICS: Some organizations have established ISO 9000 quality certification or the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM) as requirements for doing business with other companies. For other companies, the need for quality improvement has been recognized as critical to long-term survival. This book compares the three leading software quality assessment methodologies, including ISO 9000, SEI CMM and the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award, helping businesses understand how these methods overlap, how to choose one, and how to manage the quality process most effectively.MARKET: Managers and developers interested in improving their software quality.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0133762602
• ISBN13: 9780133762600
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.3" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Clear navigation through confusing standards

This book cuts through the fog and confusion surrounding the three of the four main approaches to software quality (the fourth is Software Process Capability Determination, a.k.a. SPICE). My goals in reading this book were to find the best framework with which to apply to service delivery, and to integrate this framework into application delivery. Since these terms are ambiguous in the software industry here are my definitions: service delivery encompasses the maintenance, operation and support of applications after they have been released into production. Application delivery is the analysis, design, construction and testing of applications prior to release to production. This book compared and contrasted each quality approach and provided some surprising facts. For example, until I carefully read this book I was under the impression that the SEI CMM was the most process-oriented approach. As it turns out ISO 9000 (specifically, ISO 9000-3, which addresses software and services) is more heavily oriented towards process. Another surprise was discovering that the SEI CMM places more emphasis on leadership than the Malcolm Baldridge approach. Each of these facts were easy to discover because the author did an excellent job of correlating criteria of each of the approaches and displaying results in graphs and charts.Prior to reading the book I was confused and frustrated by the competing standards and frameworks. This was exacerbated by the fact that there is a large body of knowledge devoted to each and these bodies comprise thousands of pages of dry material. After reading this book I felt as though I had a grasp of the focus of each approach, and their relative strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, I was able to determine which of the three is best suited to service delivery and its integration with application delivery (the Baldridge approach appears to be the best choice). I appreciated the author's efforts in clearly outlining the what's and why's behind each approach, and the succinct manner in which each was compared, contrasted and correlated. This is an extremely valuable book for individuals and companies trying to sort through the buzzwords and assumptions on quality frameworks to select one that is most appropriate for their goals and objectives. I strongly recommend this book for software engineering managers, including members of program management offices (PMOs) and software engineering process groups (SEPGs), as well as service delivery professionals (production services, tier 1 and 2 support, etc.).

Interesting reading

Good reading for those who are interested in the field of quality. And would like to learn more.