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Instead of wading through requirements documents, try drawing them instead. Learn about three simple diagrams and how to turn them quickly into valuable models. The diagrams presented here represent the most commonly used types for each of the three software dimension perspectives: data flow diagrams for function, class diagrams for information, and state transition diagrams for behavior.

Think you’re ready to launch your new metrics program? Think again. Find out how conducting a trial measurement program on yourself first can give you valuable insights and understanding. Learn about the value and limits of measurement, gain knowledge into why many software measurement efforts fail, and prepare yourself for launching a successful program.

Hype is not unknown in the software field. The advocates of every new software idea exaggerate the benefits of using that idea. Those exaggerated claims generally have no basis in reality. In this week's column, Robert Glass explains his theory about Open Source Software.

Due to shrinking budgets, organizations have scaled back testing beyond the point of acceptable risk. Some companies have eliminated QA resources altogether, pushing testing responsibilities back onto programming staff, which is itself spread too thinly to get it done. Unfortunately, this means that software (and even some hardware) is being released in an untested state. It's important to ask who is doing the testing on your project to ensure the testing is being done at all.

Software quality assurance is a planned and systematic approach necessary to provide adequate confidence that an item or product conforms to established standards, procedures, and policies. This paper addresses the quality assurance practices that were employed in the organization to assure "quality" of software product development. It describes the practices that can be effectively adopted both at the project level and organization level. Defect metric data which has been collected out of this endeavor is also presented.

Sometimes TDD (Test-Driven Development) doesn't get used because it can be cost prohibitive to a testing budget. Read on as Joel Spolsky laments the limited real-life usefulness of test-driven development and discusses some common roadblocks to using this testing technique.