D Annex D: Application of Quality Measures at Different Stages

What this heading covers

The introduction names the lifecycle stages the draft is written for: requirements analysis, design specification, coding, testing through acceptance, and maintenance. The measure set has to be read against those stages, because a measure that is cheap at test can be impossible at operation and a measure that only exists at operation cannot inform a design decision. The annex is where the draft would set out which measures are available when. It matters commercially: a supplier answering a tender needs measures it can evidence before delivery, and an acquirer needs measures it can verify at acceptance and monitor in operation.

Record position: annex 4 of 5. The heading is D in the public contents; its text is informative and not public.

What the heading asks of a team

What to put in place before publication

1. Draw a stage map with the forty families down one side and the lifecycle stages across the top.
2. Mark where each measure is available, where it is expensive, and where it is not available at all.
3. Choose, for each stage gate, the smallest set that informs the decision at that gate.
4. Agree with the acquirer which measures will be evidenced at acceptance and which will be monitored in operation.
5. Record the stage in every result, because a measure taken at test is not the same claim as one taken in operation.

Where teams usually fall short

• A supplier asked for operational reliability evidence before the product has run in operation.
• A design gate that asks for measures the product cannot produce until test.

What happens next

Annex E is the last annex and it deals with measurement uncertainty, which matters most where a lab or an assessor signs the result.