QUALITY ASSURANCE
MANAGEMENT CONTROLS
Chapter 9
Quality Assurance (QA) Management
is concerned with ensuring:
1)
2)
The information system produced by
the information system function
achieve certain quality goals.
Development, implementation,
operation, and maintenance of
information systems comply with a set
of quality standards.
Motivation Toward The QA Role
1)
2)
There are six reasons why the
information systems QA Role has
emerged in many organization:
Increasingly organizations are
producing safety critical information
systems
Users are becoming more demanding
in terms of their expectations about
the
Motivation Toward The QA Role
3)
4)
quality of software they employ to
undertake their work
Organizations are undertaking more
ambitious projects when they build
software
Organizations are becoming
increasingly concerned about their
liabilities if they produce and sell
defective software
Motivation Toward The QA Role
5)
Poor quality control over the
production, implementation,
operation, and maintenance of
software can be costly in terms of
missed deadlines, dissatisfied users
and customers, lower morale among
information system staff, higher
maintenance, and strategic projects
that must be abandoned
Motivation Toward The QA Role
6)
Improving the quality of information
systems is part of a worldwide trend
among organizations to improve the
quality of the goods and services they
sell
QA Functions
QA personnel should work closely with
information systems personnel to
improve the quality of information
systems produced, implemented,
operated and maintained in a
organizations.
QA Functions
1)
2)
They perform a monitoring role for
management to ensure that:
Quality goals are established and
understood clearly by all stakeholders
Compliance occurs with the standards
that are in place to attain quality
information systems
QA Functions
In the following subsections we
examine six specific functions that QA
personnel should perform. Auditors
should know about these functions to
be able to evaluate whether they are
being performed reliably by QA
personnel more over, if QA personnel
are not performing these function
reliably, auditors must understand the
implications for the conduct of the audit
1) Developing Quality Goals
One of the more difficult tasks that QA
personnel must undertake is to develop
quality goals for the information
systems function and to develop or
approve quality goals for specific
information systems
Figure 9-1
Software Quality Characteristics
Quality Characteristic
•
Functionality
•
Reliability
•
Usability
Efficiency
•
Maintainability
•
Portability
•
Explanation
•
Extent to which the software contains the
functions needed to satisfy user needs
•
Extend to which the software sustains its
level of performance under stated
conditions for some defined time period
•
Level of effort needed for users to exploit
the functionality of the software
•
Level of resources consumed by th
software to performs its functions
•
Level of effort needed to modify the
software
•
Extent to which software can be
transferred from one hardware/software
platform to another
Figure 9-2
Using a Project Plan To Attain Quality
Goals
2) Developing, Promulgating and
Maintaining for the Information
System Function
a)
There are four advantages to having QA
personnel assume responsibility for the
development, promulgation, and
maintenance of information systems
standards:
QA personnel are charged with being
knowledgeable about and remaining up
to date with best practice in information
system standard
2) Developing, Promulgating and
Maintaining for the Information
System Function
b)
c)
d)
Decisions on standards can be a
political issue that evokes strong,
emotive reactions
QA personnel must undertake
analyses of the reasons when an
organization fails to achieve its
information system quality goals
QA personnel must ensure that the
organization adopts an d complies
with the best set of information
systems standards possible
3) Monitoring Compliance with QA
Standards
a)
b)
QA personnel undertake two types of
monitoring of compliance with QA
standards:
They monitor compliance with the QA
plan prepared for a specific systems
QA personnel should seek to avoid
disputes over detail
4) Identifying Areas for
Improvement
a)
For two reasons, QA personnel should
have responsibility for identifying
areas where information systems
function can be improved :
Given their overarching concern with
quality assurance, they are in the best
position to offer independent advice
4) Identifying Areas for
Improvement
b)
QA personnel should have the
knowledge and experience to make
the best recommendations for
improvements to information system
standards or processes
5) Reporting to Management
Regular reports on compliance with
general/specific standards
6) Training in QA Standards and
Procedures
a)
QA personnel have responsibility for
training all stakeholders in the
information systems function in QA
standards and procedure. They must
undertake two types of training:
Focuses on providing general
knowledge about quality assurance
6) Training in QA Standards and
Procedures
b)
Focuses on standards and procedures
that will be specific to an application
system
Organizational Considerations

Placement of the QA function
The QA function must be placed within
the organizational hierarchy of the
information systems function so that it
can act independently of other
information systems activities.
Figure 9-8
Placement of the QA function within the organizational
hierarchy of the information systems function.
Vice President
Information Systems
Manager
IS and IT
Planning
Manager
Information
Technology
Services
Manager
Quality
Assurance
Manager
End-User
Support
Manager
Corporate
Systems
Integration
Manager
Contracts and
Outsourcing
Applications
Development
Applications
Maintenance
Standards
Development
Data
Administration
Database
Administration
Corporate
Modeling
Manager
Operations
Facilities
Manager
Administration
Organizational Considerations
Auditors can interview QA staff,
information systems staff, and
information system users to determine
the scope and depth of QA work and to
assess whether funding of the QA
function
Organizational Considerations

Staffing the QA function
QA personnel must be well trained and
competent, and their skills must be kept
up to date.
Auditors should evaluate whether QA
personnel have adequate knowledge of
information systems development,
implementation and operations
procedures.
Relationship between Quality
Assurance and Auditing
Objectives and Functions of QA
personnel and auditors are the same.
Both QA personnel and auditors are
concerned with the existence of
information system standards,
compliance with these standards, and
timely, corrective actions when
deviations from standard occur.