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DEVELOPMENT OF A QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT TOOL TO EVALUATE SOFTWARE USING SOFTWARE QUALITY MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES Item Type Other Authors Erukulapati, Kishore Publisher Cunningham Memorial library, Terre Haute,Indiana State University Download date 23/09/2021 23:31:43 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10484/12347 DEVELOPMENT OF A QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT TOOL TO EVALUATE SOFTWARE USING SOFTWARE QUALITY MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES _______________________ A Dissertation Presented to The College of Graduate and Professional Studies College of Technology Indiana State University Terre Haute, Indiana ______________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _______________________ by Kishore Erukulapati December 2017 © Kishore Erukulapati 2017 Keywords: Software Quality, Technology Management, Software Quality Management, Bibliometric techniques, Best Practices VITA Kishore Erukulapati EDUCATION Ph.D. Indiana State University (ISU), Terre Haute, IN. Technology Management, 2017. M.S. California State University (CSU), Dominguez Hills, CA. Quality Assurance, 2011. B.Tech. National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut, Kerala, India. Computer Science and Engineering, 1996. INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE 2011-Present Hawaii Medical Service Association. Position: Senior IT Consultant. 2008-2010 Telvent. Position: Operations Manager. 2008-2008 ACG Tech Systems. Position: Test Manager. 2000-2008 IBM Global Services. Position: Project Manager. 1996-2000 Tata Consultancy Services. Position: System Analyst. PUBLICATIONS/PRESENTATIONS Erukulapati, K., & Sinn, J. W. (2017). Better Intelligence. Quality Progress, 50 (9), 34-40. Erukulapati, K. (2016). What Can Software Quality Engineering Contribute to Cybersecurity?. Software Quality Professional, 19(1). Erukulapati, K. (2015, Dec 2). Information Technology in Healthcare: Current Status and Future Perspectives. Presented at IEEE Hawaii Chapter - Computer Society Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii. Erukulapati, K. (2013, Nov 21). Integration of COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) Software Products – A Quality Management Roadmap. Presented at 2013 ATMAE Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana. Erukulapati, K. (2013, Nov 21). Closing the Quality Gap in Healthcare through Systems Thinking. Presented at 2013 ATMAE Annual Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana. Erukulapati, K. (2013, July 5). Advanced Analytics – The next frontier for innovation and STEM jobs. Presented at IEEE Hawaii Chapter - Computer Society Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii. Erukulapati, K. (2013, Mar 4). Integrated Lean Six Sigma. Presented at 2013 ASQ Lean Six Sigma Conference, Phoenix, Arizona. Erukulapati, K. (2012, Nov 14). Software Quality Affects us all. Presented at ASQ Hawaii Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii. PROFESSIONAL AFFLIATIONS Senior Member & Section Membership Chair ASQ Senior Member & Section Vice-Chair & Section Computer Society Chair IEEE iii COMMITTEE MEMBERS Committee Chair: M. Affan Badar, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Applied Engineering and Technology Management Indiana State University Committee Member: Merwan B. Mehta, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Technology Systems East Carolina University Committee Member: Jeff Ulmer, Ph. D. Professor, Department of Industrial Management and Engineering Technology University of Central Missouri iv ABSTRACT Organizations are constantly in search of competitive advantages in today’s complex global marketplace through improvement of quality, better affordability, and quicker delivery of products and services. This is significantly true for software as a product and service. With other things being equal, the quality of software will impact consumers, organizations, and nations. The quality and efficiency of the process utilized to create and deploy software can result in cost and schedule overruns, cancelled projects, loss of revenue, loss of market share, and loss of consumer confidence. Hence, it behooves us to constantly explore quality management strategies to deliver high quality software quickly at an affordable price. This research identifies software quality management best practices derived from scholarly literature using bibliometric techniques in conjunction with literature review, synthesizes these best practices into an assessment tool for industrial practitioners, refines the assessment tool based on academic expert review, further refines the assessment tool based on a pilot test with industry experts, and undertakes industry expert validation. Key elements of this software quality assessment tool include issues dealing with people, organizational environment, process, and technology best practices. Additionally, weights were assigned to issues of people, organizational environment, process, and technology best practices based on their relative importance, to calculate an overall weighted score for organizations to evaluate where they stand with respect to their peers in pursuing the business of producing quality software. This research study indicates that people best practices carry 40% of overall weight, organizational best v practices carry 30% of overall weight, process best practices carry 15% of overall weight, and technology best practices carry 15% of overall weight. The assessment tool that is developed will be valuable to organizations that seek to take advantage of rapid innovations in pursuing higher software quality. These organizations can use the assessment tool for implementing best practices based on the latest cutting edge management strategies that can lead to improved software quality and other competitive advantages in the global marketplace. This research contributed to the current academic literature in software quality by presenting a quality assessment tool based on software quality management best practices, contributed to the body of knowledge on software quality management, and expanded the knowledgebase on quality management practices. This research also contributed to current professional practice by incorporating software quality management best practices into a quality management assessment tool to evaluate software. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I uncovered the existence of this unique and excellent doctor of philosophy in Technology Management doctoral program by serendipity. I am very fortunate to meet so many wonderful people throughout the doctoral journey that helped me become an independent research scholar, critical thinker, life-long learner, and most importantly a better person. Thanks to the power of Internet and Software in 21st century! I am indebted to the following professors and mentors for their time, dedication, commitment, enthusiasm, encouragement, motivation, advice, knowledge, experience, expertise, guidance, insights, perspectives, contribution, patience, support, and understanding. • Dr. M. Affan Badar: Dissertation Committee Chair, Program Planning Committee Member, and instructor for a Quality Systems Specialization core course (MET 612: Reliability, Maintainability, and Service). • Dr. Merwan B. Mehta: Dissertation Committee Member, Program Planning Committee Member. • Dr. Jeff Ulmer: Dissertation Committee Member, An Alumnus of doctor of philosophy in Technology Management program, Instructor for the first course that I took in Technology Management program, a Technology Management core course (INDM 5015: Legal aspects of Industry). • Dr. John W. Sinn: Program Planning Committee Chair, Co-author of the first scholarly article that I published in ASQ’s quality progress, Instructor for a vii Technology Management core course (TECH 6820: Technology Systems Assessment, and Innovation), Instructor for two Quality Systems Specialization core courses (QS 7270: Documentation based Process Improvement, QS 7260: Quality Change Culture and Systems), and Instructor for Technology Management professional studies core courses (TECH 7880: Internship #1 in Technology Management, TECH 7880: Internship #2 in Technology Management). I am thankful to the following professors and staff that helped me during this doctoral journey. • Dr. A. Mehran Shahhosseini: Director of the Ph. D. in Technology Management program. • Dr. Barry Duvall: Instructor for a Technology Management core course (ITEC 6050: Strategies for Technology Management and Communication). • Dr. Craig Rhodes: Instructor for a Technology Management core course (TECH 708-5A: Impacts of Technology). • Dr. David Beach: Instructor for a Research core course (COT 702: Advanced Technological Research Methods). • Dr. George Maughan: Former director of the Ph. D. in Technology Management program and Instructor for two Research core courses (COT 710: Research Residency Orientation Seminar, COT 711: Research Residency Seminar). • Dr. Michael Hayden: Instructor for three Quality Systems Specialization core courses (TMGT 813: Quality Standards Leadership, TMGT 814: Quality Systems viii Seminar, MET 611: Experimental Design and Process Analyses) and one Research core course (COT 703: Advanced Statistical Analysis in Technology). • Mary Griffy: Former Administrative Specialist supporting the Ph. D. in Technology Management program. • Marti Mix: Administrative Specialist supporting the Ph. D. in Technology Management program. • Nicholas Aballi: Technology Specialist supporting the Ph. D. in Technology Management program. I am thankful to academic experts, industry experts, and industry practitioners for their invaluable feedback that helped in refining the software quality management assessment tool. I am also thankful to alumni and students of Ph.