The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and the Object Management Group (OMG) have announced a partnership to sponsor the Consortium of IT Software Quality (CISQ), an industry-led initiative to address the measurement of critical IT application quality attributes.
CISQ will bring together industry executives from Global 2000 IT organizations, system integrators, outsourcers, and package vendors to jointly address the challenge of standardizing the measurement of IT software quality and to promote a market-based ecosystem to support its deployment. One of CISQ's earliest objectives will be to develop an industry standard that provides the detail necessary to automate the measurement of quality attributes.
"OMG's success in standards development and the SEI's experience in software architecture, quality attributes, process improvement, and network security make this a very strong partnership with global reach," says Paul D. Nielsen, director and CEO of the SEI.
CISQ's primary objectives are to:
- Advise, educate, and be the voice to business and government leaders on the strategic and mission critical importance of IT application quality
- Develop standard measures of quality attributes to be used by IT and the business for evaluating the software quality and risk of multi-tier IT applications
- Propose methods for using quality measures in negotiating and managing the acquisition or maintenance of IT application software
- Develop and promote professional licensing for those providing services to assess the quality of IT application software
- Establish an online IT industry forum for addressing IT application quality issues
Capers Jones, a well-recognized IT industry expert has joined this partnership as a CISQ distinguished advisor. He will contribute his expertise in software quality and size measurement to the achievement of CISQ's objectives. The inaugural CISQ Executive Forums will be held at the SEI facilities on October 6 in Arlington, Va., and November 12 in Frankfurt, Germany. The aim is to have a draft of the IT quality standard by the fourth quarter of 2010. Licensing of IT quality service providers is expected to begin during 2011.
