SQEngineer: a methodology and tool for specifying and engineering software quality

Quality control techniques such as reviews, walkthroughs, inspections, and testing have been both suggested and heavily used in practice to build quality software. However, all these techniques are effective only as defect detection rather than prevention techniques. A more effective approach to preventing defects from being introduced into the product is to engineer quality into software. Software must be developed to meet quality requirements that have been specified and agreed upon. This paper proposes a methodology and an automated tool for specifying quality requirements and engineering quality into software. The SQEngineer methodology and tool evolved over a two year period through which they were used by software professionals in the graduate programs in software at the University of St. Thomas (USA) to develop quality plans for real life applications