3. Quality Baselines (Assessments and Models)

Organizations need to establish baselines of performance for quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. These baselines are used to document current performance and document improvements by showing changes from a baseline. In order to establish a baseline, a model and/or goal must be established for use in measuring against to determine the baseline.

Quality Baseline Concepts

·        Baselines Defined

·        Types of Baselines

·        Conducting Baseline Studies

Methods Used for Establishing Baselines

·        Customer Surveys

·        Benchmarking to Establish a Baseline Goal

·        Assessments against Management Established Criteria (e.g. software requirements and user acceptance criteria)Assessments against Industry Models

Model and Assessment Fundamentals

·        Purpose of a Model

·        Types of Models (Staged and Continuous)

·        Model Selection Process

·        Using Models for Assessment and Baselines

Industry Quality Models

·        Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model Integration/CMMI (CMMI®)

·        Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)

·        ISO 9001:2000

·        ISO/IEC 12207: Information Technology – Software Life Cycle Processes

·        ISO/IEC 15504: Process Assessment

·        Post-Implementation Audits