Applying Software Quality Concepts

Objective:

In this activity, you and your team will apply software quality concepts to your project by:

  1. Identifying and prioritizing key software qualities for your system.
  2. Selecting quality management activities that fit your project’s needs.
  3. Exploring how AI can assist in improving software quality.
  4. Developing a brief quality management plan for your project.

Each team will then present their plan in a brief summary presentation.

Instructions:

Step 1: Identifying & Prioritizing Software Qualities (10 Minutes)

  1. Review key software quality attributes from the slides, such as:
    • Reliability
    • Maintainability
    • Usability
    • Efficiency
    • Security
    • Portability
    • Scalability
  2. As a team, rank these attributes based on their importance for your project.
    • Scale: Assign a score from 1-10 to each quality (1 = low importance, 10 = critical).
    • Justify your rankings: Why are the top qualities most important for your system?
    • Discuss trade-offs: Are there any conflicts between qualities? (e.g., security vs. usability).

Step 2: Selecting Quality Management Activities (10 Minutes)

  1. Identify appropriate quality management activities for your project:
    • Code Reviews
    • Automated Testing
    • Performance Monitoring
    • Security Audits
    • User Testing
    • Continuous Integration & Deployment (CI/CD)
    • Documentation Improvements
  2. Discuss how you can reasonably implement these activities within the time left in your project.
    • Which activities are most critical to improving software quality?
    • How much time and effort can you realistically dedicate?
    • Can you integrate these into your existing workflow?

Step 3: Exploring AI-Assisted Quality Improvement (10 Minutes)

AI can help automate and improve software quality. Discuss the following with your team:

  1. How AI Can Improve Software Quality:
    • Automated Code Reviews: Tools like GitHub Copilot and DeepCode suggest fixes and improvements.
    • Automated Testing: AI-based test generation using tools like Test.ai or Selenium AI.
    • Bug Detection: AI-driven static analysis (e.g., SonarQube, DeepCode).
    • Performance Optimization: AI-based monitoring tools that detect performance issues in real-time.
    • Security Analysis: AI-powered security scanners like Snyk or Checkmarx.
  2. Applying AI to Your Project:
    • Which AI-based tools could help improve your software’s top quality attributes?
    • Can you integrate automated testing or bug detection?
    • Would AI-generated documentation or code suggestions be useful?

Step 4: Developing a Quality Management Plan (10 Minutes)

Each team will create a brief quality management plan outlining:

  1. Project Overview: Briefly describe your system.
  2. Top 3-4 Software Qualities: Based on your rankings, which qualities are most important?
  3. Selected Quality Management Activities:
    • Which activities will you focus on?
    • How will you apply them in the remaining time?
  4. AI-Assisted Quality Enhancements:
    • How can AI tools assist in improving your project’s quality?

Step 5: Team Presentations (5 Minutes per Team)

Each team will give a brief 5-minute presentation covering:

  • Which software qualities they prioritized and why.
  • Quality management activities they plan to implement.
  • How AI will help improve their system’s quality.
  • Their final quality management plan.

After each presentation, 1-2 minutes of discussion will allow other teams to provide feedback or ask questions.

Wrap-Up & Reflection

  • Quality is critical in real-world software projects.
  • Different projects require different quality focuses—trade-offs exist.
  • AI tools can enhance quality, but teams must choose wisely where to use them.
  • A structured quality management plan helps ensure projects meet user expectations.
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