Experiences of software quality management using metrics through the life-cycle

Many software quality metrics to objectively grasp software products and process have been proposed in the past decades. In actual projects, quality metrics has been widely applied to manage software quality. However, there are still several problems with providing effective feedback to intermediate software products and the software development process. We have proposed a software quality management using quality metrics which are easily and automatically measured. The purpose of this proposal is to establish a method for building in software quality by regularly measuring and reviewing. The paper outlines a model for building in software quality using quality metrics, and describes examples of its application to actual projects and its results. As the results, it was found that quality metrics can be used to detect and remove problems with process and products in each phase. Regular technical reviews using quality metrics and information on the change of the regularly measured results was also found to have a positive influence on the structure and module size of programs. Further, in the test phase, it was found that with the proposed model, the progress of corrective action could be quickly and accurately grasped.