Predicting Software Quality Early in the Software Development Lifecycle and Producing Secure Software
Girish Seshagiri · 2011
Even with all the emphasis on writing software with security in mind, most software applications remain riddled with security holes. The current method of dealing with the increasing number of cyber attacks is reactive patch management. We provide details of how to pro-actively predict software quality early in the software development life cycle and produce secure software with little or no vulnerabilities. We share real life examples of using a Process Quality Index (PQI) metric to successfully predict whether components that have been unit tested will have down-stream defects in integration, system, and customer acceptance testing. We recommend a rapid transformation of the U.S. software industry from the current “Deliver now, Fix later” culture to one committed to delivering substantially defect-free code within predictable cost and schedule.