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1、Quality Assurance Handbook:Part 6: Quality Assurance For SoftwareThis handbook provides advice and support for projects funded by JISCs digital library programmes. The handbook provides advice for projects in their choice of standards, best practices and implementation architectures. The handbook pr
2、ovides a quality assurance methodology which will help to ensure that projects funded by JISCs digital library programmes are interoperable and widely accessible.This handbook addresses the issue of software. AuthorsQA Focus team at UKOLN and AHDSPublication date:16 August 2004Version:1.0推荐精选Table O
3、f Contents1Introduction1Background1About QA Focus1Scope Of QA Focus1The QA Focus Team22About This Handbook33Briefing Papers On Software4Top Tips For Selecting Open Source Software5Software Code Development8Creating and Testing Web Forms11Making Software Changes to a Web Site13Top 10 Tips For Databas
4、e Design15Top Tips For Resolving Poor Performance in Database Design174Case Studies On Software19Error Detection on the UKOLN Web Site205Software Toolkit23Software Toolkit236Further Information25OSS Watch25Acknowledgements26推荐精选1IntroductionBackgroundWelcome to QA Focuss “Quality Assurance For Softw
5、are” Handbook. This handbook has been published by the JISC-funded QA Focus project. The handbook provides advice on compliance with the standards and best practices in the area of software.About QA FocusQA Focus has funded by the JISC to help develop quality assurance methodology which projects fun
6、ded by JISCs digital library programmes should seek to implement in order to ensure that project deliverables comply with appropriate standards and best practices which. This will help to ensure that project deliverables and widely accessible and interoperable and to facilitate the deployment of del
7、iverables into a service environment.The approach taken by QA Focus has been developmental: rather than seeking to impose requirements on projects, which are being undertaken by many institutions across the country, with differing backgrounds and levels of funding and resources, we have sought to ra
8、ise an awareness of JISCs commitment to use of open standards, to describe various technical frameworks which can help in deploying open standards and to outline ways of ensuring that selected standards and used in a compliance fashion. We do, however, recognise the difficulties which projects may e
9、xperience in implementing open standards (such as, for example, the immaturity of standards or the poor support for standards by tool vendors; the resource implications in implementing some of the standards; etc.). We have sought to address such concerns by developing a matrix framework to assist in
10、 the selection of standards which are appropriate for use by standards, in the light of available funding, available expertise, maturity of standard, etc.We hope that the wide range of advice provided in this handbook will be valuable to projects. However the most important aspect of this handbook i
11、s the quality assurance QA methodology which is outlined in the handbook. The QA methodology has been developed with an awareness of the constraints faced by projects. We have sought to develop a light-weight QA methodology which can be easily implemented and which should provide immediate benefits
12、to projects during the development of their deliverables as well as ensuring interoperability and ease of deployment into service which will help to ensure the maximum effectiveness of JISCs overall digital library development work.Scope Of QA FocusQA Focus seeks to ensure technical interoperability
13、 and maximum accessibility of project deliverables. QA Focus therefore has a focus on the technical aspects of projects work. Our remit covers the following technical aspects:推荐精选Digitisation: The digitisation of resources, including text, image, moving image and sound resources.Access: Access to re
14、sources, with particular references to access using the Web. Metadata: The use of metadata, such as resource discovery metadata.Software development: The development and deployment of software applications.Service deployment: Deployment of project deliverables into a service environment.In addition
15、to these core technical areas we also address:Standards: The selection and deployment of standards for use by projects.Quality assurance: The development of quality assurance procedures by projects.QA Focuss was originally funded to support JISCs 5/99 programme. However during 2003 our remit was ext
16、ended to support JISCs FAIR and X4L in addition to 5/99.The QA Focus TeamQA Focus began its work on 1 January 2002. Initially the service was provided by UKOLN and ILRT, University of Bristol. However, following ILRTs decision to re-focus on their core activities they left QA Focus and were replaced
17、 by the AHDS on 1 January 2003.This handbook has been developed by the current QA Focus team members: Brian Kelly, UKOLN (QA Focus project leader), Amanda Closier (QA Focus officer), Marieke Guy, UKOLN (former QA Focus officer), Hamish James, AHDS (QA Focus project leader at AHDS) and Gareth Knight
18、(QA Focus officer).推荐精选2About This HandbookThis handbook provides advice on best practices for use of software.The handbook forms part of a series of Quality Assurance handbooks, which cover the areas which have been addressed by QA Focus work:Part 1: About Quality assurance: The development of qual
19、ity assurance procedures by projects.Part 2: Quality Assurance For Standards: The selection and deployment of standards for use by projects.Part 3: Quality Assurance For Digitisation: The digitisation of resources, including text, image, moving image and sound resources.Part 4: Quality Assurance For
20、 Web/Access: Access to resources, especially access using the Web. Part 5: Quality Assurance For Metadata: The use of metadata, such as resource discovery metadata.Part 6: Quality Assurance For Software: Development and deployment of software applications.Part 7: Quality Assurance For Service Deploy
21、ment: Deployment of project deliverables into a service environment.Part 8: Quality Assurance In Other Areas: Quality assurance in areas not covered elsewhere.The handbook consists of three main sections:Briefing Documents: Brief, focussed advice on best practices.Case studies: Descriptions of the a
22、pproaches taken by projects to the deployment of best practices.Toolkit: Self-assessment checklists which can help ensure that projects have addressed the key areas.推荐精选3Briefing Papers On SoftwareBackgroundThis section addresses the area of software. The briefing documents seek to describe best pra
23、ctices in this area.Briefing DocumentsThe following briefing documents which address the area of software have been produced:· Top Tips For Selecting Open Source Software (briefing-60)· Software Code Development (briefing-13)· Creating and Testing Web Forms (briefing-14)· Making
24、Software Changes to a Web Site (briefing-19)· Top 10 Tips For Database Design (briefing-48)· Top 10 Tips For Resolving Poor Performance in Database Design (briefing-49)· Improving Interoperability Between Multiple Databases (briefing-50)Advisory documents which cover specific technica
25、l areas are available within the section on the appropriate technical area.Case StudiesThe following case studies which address the area of software have been produced:· Error Detection on the UKOLN Web site (case-study-14)Case studies which cover specific technical areas are available within t
26、he section on the appropriate technical area.推荐精选Top Tips For Selecting Open Source SoftwareAbout This DocumentThis briefing document provides tips on selecting open source software.Citation DetailsTop Tips For Selecting Open Source Software, QA Focus, UKOLN, <http:/www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/docum
27、ents/briefings/briefing-60/>Keywords: software, open source, tips, briefingAbout This DocumentPerformance and reliability are the principal criteria for selecting software. In most procurement exercises however, price is also a determining factor when comparing quotes from multiple vendors. Price
28、 comparisons do have a role, but usually not in terms of a simple comparison of purchase prices. Rather, price tends to arise when comparing “total cost of ownership” (TCO), which includes both the purchase price and ongoing costs for support (and licence renewal) over the real life span of the prod
29、uct. This document provides tips about selecting open source software.Top TipsReputationDoes the software have a good reputation for performance and reliability? Here, word of mouth reports from people whose opinion you trust is often key. Some open source software has a very good reputation in the
30、industry, e.g. Apache web server, GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), Linux, Samba etc. You should be comparing “best of breed” open source software against its proprietary peers. Discussing your plans with someone with experience using open source software and an awareness of the packages you are propos
31、ing to use is vital.Ongoing effortIs there clear evidence of ongoing effort to develop the open source software you are considering? Has there been recent work to fix bugs and meet user needs? Active projects usually have regularly updated web pages and busy development email lists. They usually enc
32、ourage the participation of those who use the software in its further development. If everything is quiet on the development front, it might be that work has been suspended or even stopped.Standards and interoperabilityChoose software which implements open standards. Interoperability with other soft
33、ware is an important way of getting more from your investment. Good software does not reinvent the wheel, or force you to learn new languages or complex data formats.推荐精选Support (Community)Does the project have an active support community ready to answer your questions concerning deployment? Look at
34、 the project's mailing list archive, if available. If you post a message to the list and receive a reasonably prompt and helpful reply, this may be a sign that there is an active community of users out there ready to help. Good practice suggests that if you wish to avail yourself of such support
35、, you should also be willing to provide support for other members of the community when you are able.Support (Commercial)Third party commercial support is available from a diversity of companies, ranging from large corporations such as IBM and Sun Microsystems, to specialist open source organization
36、s such as Red Hat and MySQL, to local firms and independent contractors. Commercial support is most commonly available for more widely used products or from specialist companies who will support any product within their particular specialism.VersionWhen was the last stable version of the software re
37、leased? Virtually no software, proprietary or open source, is completely bug free. If there is an active development community, newly discovered bugs will be fixed and patches to the software or a new version will be released. For enterprise use, you need the most recent stable release of the softwa
38、re, be aware that there may have been many more recent releases in the unstable branch of development. There is, of course, always the option of fixing bugs yourself, since the source code of the software will be available to you. But that rather depends on your (or your team's) skill set and ti
39、me commitments.Version 1.0Open source projects usually follow the “release early and often” motto. While in development they may have very low version numbers. Typically a product needs to reach its 1.0 release prior to being considered for enterprise use. (This is not to say that many pre-”1.0” ver
40、sions of software are not very good indeed, e.g. Mozilla's 0.8 release of its Firefox browser.)DocumentationOpen source software projects may lag behind in their documentation for end users, but they are typically very good with their development documentation. You should be able to trace a clea
41、r history of bug fixes, feature changes, etc. This may provide the best insight into whether the product, at its current point in development, is fit for your purposes.Skill setConsider the skill set of yourself and your colleagues. Do you have the appropriate skills to deploy and maintain this soft
42、ware? If not, what training plan will you put in place to match your skills to the task? Remember, this is not simply true for open source software, but also for proprietary software. These training costs should be included when comparing TCOs for different products.推荐精选LicenseArguably, open source
43、software is as much about the license as it is about the development methodology. Read the license. Well-known licenses such as the General Public License (GPL) and the Lesser General Public License (LGPL) have well defined conditions for your contribution of code to the ongoing development of the s
44、oftware or the incorporation of the code into other packages. If you are not familiar with these licenses or with the one used by the software you are considering, take the time to clarify conditions of use.CoverageMany open source products are generalist and must be specialised before use. Generall
45、y speaking the more effort required to specialise a product, the greater is its generality. A more narrowly focused product will reduce the effort require to deploy it, but may lack flexibility. An example of the former is GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), and an example of the latter might be Evolutio
46、n email client, which works well “out of the box” but is only suitable for the narrow range of tasks for which it was intended.Useful URLsThe Open Source Software Definition <http:/www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php>, which sets out the distribution terms for software to count as open sour
47、ce. The Free Software Definition <http:/www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html> which clarifies the sense of “free” that relates to the freedom to run, distribute and change the software.The Cathedral and the Bazaar <http:/www.catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/> the classic text on ope
48、n source development methodologies.Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution < with essays from many of the important figures in the free software and open source movements.SourceF < which is a repository of thousands of open source projects.Further InformationOSS Watch, <http:/www.oss-watch.ac.uk/>, is the open source software advisory service for UK higher and further education. It provides neutral and authoritative guidance on free and open source software, and about related open standards.