Overview・Four mechanisms for release judgment
For release judgment, decide the type of release, the person in charge of judgment, and the judgment method, and use the worksheet.
Once the criteria for determining whether or not to release software can be organized, the next important thing is to develop a determination mechanism that makes a firm release decision using those criteria . Even if the judgment criteria are established, they will not be useful unless they are properly operated.
For nearly 20 years, Gutara’s father has been making software release judgments (shipment judgments) as part of software quality assurance work, but there are four ways of thinking about the release judgment mechanism that he was careful about when working on release judgments. there is. There are various release judgment methods depending on the organization, so I think you should read it as a concrete example if there is such a way of thinking.
Four mechanisms of Gutara father style release judgment
Please refer to another article for the criteria for determining whether or not to release software .
Release type
First of all, what kind of release does your company have? There is always the official version . In addition to the official version, there are various releases of software such as evaluation version , function confirmation version , α version , β version , and so on.
Various names are used depending on the purpose of the release and the market, but the procedure and release judgment criteria for each release are clear and related people and customers within the company. Is the consciousness correct?
If there is a gap in awareness of the type of release, it can cause quite a big problem. For example, how far has the beta release software been tested? Let’s consider the quality level as an example. The customer thinks that the stability test has been completed, while the developer thinks that the stability test including the abnormal system has not been completed by the time the normal system test is completed. It is certain that various problems will occur.
I will think about the types of releases in another article , what kind of things should be clarified and conscious with the people concerned for each type of release .
Release judge
The second person in charge of release decision , who should make the final decision on whether or not to release? Since software release is equivalent to the product shipment, quality assurance department , if there is, whether or not the judgment of shipping is responsible for the release quality assurance department is a quality assurance manager is looks good. In the case of software houses, etc., whose main business is software development and sales, this idea fits the reality, so there is no sense of discomfort.
However, there are quite a few cases where the quality assurance department feels uncomfortable when making a software release decision . For example, embedded software that is incorporated into products such as home appliances is developed by home appliance manufacturers. Of course, if you are a manufacturer of home appliances, there is a quality assurance department, so it looks like it would be good if this quality assurance department makes a release decision.
However, the work of the quality assurance department of mass-produced products such as home appliances is often focused on guaranteeing mass-produced quality in order to always manufacture a large amount of products with the same quality at the factory . .. Therefore, the quality assurance department has the technology and know-how regarding various quality control methods for guaranteeing the quality of mass-produced products and the shipping decision to determine whether mass-produced products can be shipped. ..
However, the software here as it is written in, is one goods. And, in order to judge the quality of a single item of software , it is necessary to judge the design quality, manufacturing quality, test quality, and the status of residual bugs. When the quality assurance department does not have the know-how to judge the quality of a single item of software, it may be better for the development department that seems to have such know-how to make a release judgment.
What kind of organization or role will the person make the release decision? Let’s think a little more about this in the article about the person responsible for the release decision .
Release judgment method
By the way, how do you determine the release of software ? Will the relevant departments get together to hold a decision meeting , or will the decision pass if documents such as the release application are circulated and the approval stamps are lined up in a row ?
For ordinary products, the quality assurance department often has the authority to make the final decision on whether or not to ship the product. In this case, the quality assurance department will approve the shipment, so the quality assurance department will check the documents and the actual item and judge that there is no problem with the quality, and the quality assurance department will be stamped on the shipping approval document. Then it will be shipped approval .
In the case of software release, there are various release judgment methods depending on the company as well as the person in charge of release judgment, which is not correct, but what kind of method is used for the company to judge the release? I’m at a loss when I think about it.
Father Gutara has used different release judgment methods such as meetings and document reviews according to the quality and development status of the software . In the article on release judgment method , I will introduce the release judgment made by Father Gutara. Please refer to it as there is also such a judgment method.
Judgment worksheet
The last is a judgment worksheet that records each judgment method and the result when actually performing the release judgment work . Actually, the type of release, the person in charge of determining the release, and the release determination method explained so far are conceptual, so to put it in an extreme way, even if it is not decided separately, it is quite good. However, the judgment worksheet for performing the actual judgment work cannot make the actual release judgment or record the release availability as a result and inform the company without it, so the judgment worksheet is indispensable. Tool .
For the release decision decision worksheet are usually people involved in the software release, in other words someone to release work in accordance with the determined person and release judgment result the people and release to apply for a release, it is someone other than the opportunity to see the Not much. Therefore, I think that there are many people who have never seen the judgment worksheet for the release judgment of their company. Those who are in charge of software design, implementation, and testing are encouraged to get their company’s decision worksheet and take a look. It is a condensed description of what your company is looking for in software quality and at what level.
So, in the judgment worksheet , what points of software should be checked to judge the quality status, how to judge whether the final release judgment is possible, and record the result? There aren’t any standard release decision worksheets out there, so this is also different from company to company. It can’t be helped that it’s different depending on the company, but I don’t know which one is correct, so when I try to make a worksheet for release judgment or review it, it’s a little troublesome because there is no correct answer.
What should I pay attention to when creating the judgment worksheet ? Father Gutara made the judgment worksheet with the following points in mind.
- So that release judgment can always be made based on the same criteria
- To be able to judge both process quality and product quality based on materials
- On the software release to market the quality required to match the
- So that the content of the release is correctly communicated to the customer
- Also be careful if it is developed with a well-thought-out development plan
In the Release Judgment Worksheet article, I will introducethe release judgment sheet thatmy father Gutara has done. Please refer to the fact that there is such a judgment sheet.
See individual articles for a little more detail
If you would like to know more about the release judgment mechanism, please return to the release judgment top page displayed by the release judgment link at the top of the article and see each article. You can also follow the individual articles about the criteria in order from the links below, so even if you read from here, you will reach the same article.