Software Quality Assurance

I was invited to University of North Florida(UNF) as a guest speaker to discuss SQA. Wonderful crowd, stimulating discussion.
I believe in a very simple SQA definition.
"The function of software quality that assures that the standards, processes, and procedures are appropriate for the project and are correctly implemented"

Sound simple, Its not.

I have seen companies struggle becuase they look at the SQA as a "testing" exercise, not a preventative function. I feel that attaching quality to software at the END of the life cycle wastes a lot of time and energy when defect prevention activities can take place when quality is a point of focus throughout the life cycle.

Most of the QA jobs are listed as testers, and It only addresses very small part of software quality space.

Lastly, This process should be implemented to help the business not for the sake of it.

The model introduced by Robert Grady at HP called "FURPS+" is a great way to represent and measure software quality attributes. Google it.

Also, Microsoft's Visual Studio Team Systems provides very scalable SDLC platform to implement standardization and achieve quality control and assuarance.

/dd