Quality Assurance Team Research Articles

Studying the relationship between source code quality and mobile platform dependence

The recent meteoric rise in the use of smartphones and other mobile devices has led to a new class of software applications (i.e., mobile apps). One reason for this success is the extensive support available to mobile app developers through the APIs provided by mobile platforms (e.g., Android). In our previous research, we found that mobile apps tend to depend highly on these platform-specific APIs. High dependence on a particular mobile platform may introduce instability and defects, as these mobile platforms are rapidly evolving. Therefore, the extent of platform dependence may be an indicator of software quality. In this paper, we examine the relationship between platform dependence and defect proneness of the source code files of an Android app to determine whether software metrics based on platform dependence can be used to prioritize software quality assurance efforts. We find that (1) source code files that are defect prone have a higher dependence on the platform than defect-free files and (2) increasing the platform dependence increases the likelihood of a defect being present in a source code file. Thus, platform dependence may be used to prioritize the most defect-prone source code files for code reviews and unit testing by the software quality assurance team.

Ethics of error disclosure: When to say, “I'm sorry”

Ethics of error disclosure: When to say, “I'm sorry”

Implementing a model-driven and iterative quality assessment life-cycle: a case study

Assessing software quality through quantitative and reliable information is a major concern of software engineering. However, software is a complex product involving interrelated models with different abstraction levels targeting different stakeholders and requiring specific quality assurance methods. As a result, although Software Quality has gained maturity from a theoretical point of view, the practical quality assessment of software still does not fulfil enough involved actors' expectations. In order to improve quality assurance in practice, a more integrated approach to assessment is required. This paper describes a case study in which a quality assessment framework (MoCQA) relying on a model-driven and iterative methodology has been used to this end. For a year and a half, the framework has been used by the quality assurance team of a small IT department to maintain and monitor a portfolio of projects in both production and development. The study shows the feasibility and the relevance of a model-driven and iterative quality assessment methodology in a professional environment. Besides, although its results still require more generalisation, the study provides interesting insights on how such an approach may help ensure a continuous and explicit communication between stakeholders, leading to a more efficient quality assessment.

Issues in implementation of fixed time fixed price software projects: an Indian case

Fixed Time Fixed Price (FTFP) is a software project engagement model wherein the scope of the software deliverables, budget, and schedule, are decided upfront before the commencement of the project. The work reported in the paper probes into the factors perceived to be influencing the effectiveness of such project engagements in Indian information technology companies. The respondents comprise the developers and the quality assurance teams belonging to both junior and senior levels. Results indicate that client acceptance, perceived benefits to the project organisation, and delegation of authority, and, to some extent, project goals and top management support, are significant factors for project implementation success. Development and quality assurance teams perceive issues such as project goals and benefits to the project organisations similarly though differing significantly regarding the issue of client acceptance. Junior and senior team members exhibit perception differences only on the issue of top management support in crisis.

Early implementation evaluation of a multi-site housing first intervention for homeless people with mental illness: A mixed methods approach

This research sought to determine whether the implementation of Housing First in a large-scale, multi-site Canadian project for homeless participants with mental illness shows high fidelity to the Pathways Housing First model, and what factors help or hinder implementation. Fidelity ratings for 10 Housing First programs in five cities were made by an external quality assurance team along five key dimensions of Housing First based on 84 key informant interviews, 10 consumer focus groups, and 100 chart reviews. An additional 72 key informant interviews and 35 focus groups yielded qualitative data on factors that helped or hindered implementation. Overall, the findings show a high degree of fidelity to the model with more than 71% of the fidelity items being scored higher than 3 on a 4-point scale. The qualitative research found that both delivery system factors, including community and organizational capacity, and support system factors, training and technical assistance, facilitated implementation. Fidelity challenges include the availability of housing, consumer representation in program operations, and limitations to the array of services offered. Factors that accounted for these challenges include low vacancy rates, challenges of involving recently homeless people in program operations, and a lack of services in some of the communities. The study demonstrates how the combined use of fidelity assessment and qualitative methods can be used in implementation evaluation to develop and improve a program.

Connecting the dots: using concept maps for interpreting student satisfaction

This study utilised concept mapping software to aid interpretation of the qualitative data from student satisfaction surveys. The analysis revealed differences in student priorities and attitudes across the three years of an undergraduate degree. First-year students were more concerned with social and academic integration and demonstrated an emotional response to their engagement with higher education. Comments from second-year students indicated an emphasis on academic progress and development, while final-year students were focused on achievement-oriented learning. Critical aspects of the student experience hidden between survey questions were also revealed. The paper discusses the implications of the findings for understanding the changing interaction between different aspects of student experience and satisfaction. It concludes with suggestions on how this approach to analysis might benefit the work of quality assurance teams and academic developers in other institutions.

Institutional Profile: The Beaulieu-Saucier Université de Montréal Pharmacogenomics Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute

The Beaulieu-Saucier Université de Montréal Pharmacogenomics Centre (Québec, Canada) is an academic organization dedicated to advancing knowledge and promoting discoveries in personalized medicine by leading high-quality pharmacogenomic research in partnership with industrial, governmental and academic organizations. Since its establishment in 2008, the Centre has been leading innovative genomics research programs for all phases of drug development and has conducted over 120 pharmacogenomic projects through collaborations with international partners using state-of-the-art platforms with the highest-quality data. The Centre has a fully equipped DNA and genomic laboratory facility, supported by bioinformatics, statistical genetics, quality assurance and project management teams. More recently, the Centre has partnered with the Centre of Excellence in Personalized Medicine for the commercialization of biomarkers and implementation in clinical practice, and with the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Centre for study coordination and integration with drug development pipelines. Through its academic excellence, unique expertise in Canada and international industrial partners, the Pharmacogenomics Centre is providing the technologies and research discoveries needed to provide the right therapy to the right patients.

Does Participation in Clinical Trials Influence the Implementation of New Techniques? A Look at Changing Techniques in Breast Radiotherapy in the UK

AimsTo examine the effect of UK breast radiotherapy trials on the adoption of new radiotherapy techniques over the last 15 years. Materials and methodsThe data were taken from questionnaires returned to the national radiotherapy quality assurance team for each of the major trials (START, Supremo, FAST, IMPORT) with additional information sought from heads of radiotherapy physics departments where needed. ResultsThe peak years for the introduction of three-dimensional radiotherapy corresponded to the opening of new trials requiring these techniques. Some non-trial centres had still not implemented three-dimensional techniques for breast cancer patients at the time the most recent questionnaire was completed (2009). ConclusionClinical trials provide the framework and impetus for introducing more accurate radiotherapy for UK women with early breast cancer.

Asphalt Fume Exposure Levels in North American Asphalt Production and Roofing Manufacturing Operations

This study extends by 8 years (1998–2005) a previous survey of asphalt fume exposures within North American asphalt processing and roofing product manufacturing workers. It focuses on characterizing personal, full-shift samples and seeks to address several limitations of the previous survey. Five major roofing manufacturers with established occupational health programs submitted workplace asphalt fume sampling results to a central repository for review and analysis. A certified industrial hygienist-led quality assurance team oversaw the data collection, consolidation, and analysis efforts. The analysis dataset consisted of 1261 personal exposure samples analyzed for total particulate (TP) and benzene soluble fraction (BSF) using existing NIOSH methods. For BSF, the survey's arithmetic (0.25 mg/m3, SD = 0.62) and geometric (0.12 mg/m3, GSD = 2.88) means indicate that the industry has sustained the control levels achieved in the late 1980s, early 1990s. Similar results were found for TP. The survey-wide summary statistics are consistent with other post-1990 multi-company exposure studies. Although these findings indicate that currently available controls are capable of achieving substantial (95%) compliance with the current threshold limit value in asphalt processing and inorganic shingle and roll plants, they also show that the majority of plants are not achieving this level of exposure control, and that exposures are significantly higher in plants making other product lines, particularly organic felt products. The current retrospective survey of existing company exposure data, like its predecessor, has several important limitations. These include lack of data on smaller manufacturers and on several commercially important product lines; insufficient information on the prevalence and effectiveness of engineering controls; no standard criteria by which to define and assess exposures in non-routine operations; and a paucity of exposure data collected as part of a random sampling strategy. To improve efforts to characterize exposures and potential health risks in roofing plants, a prospective program is currently being developed and piloted with the aim of building a more complete, higher-quality database based on a common industrial hygiene protocol.

Safety in Radiation Oncology: The Role of International Initiatives by the International Atomic Energy Agency

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a wide range of initiatives that address the issue of safety. Quality assurance initiatives and comprehensive audits of radiotherapy services, such as the Quality Assurance Team for Radiation Oncology, are available through the IAEA. Furthermore, the experience of the IAEA in thermoluminescence dosimetric audits has been transferred to the national level in various countries and has contributed to improvements in the quality and safety of radiotherapy. The IAEA is also involved in the development of a safety reporting and analysis system (Safety in Radiation Oncology). In addition, IAEA publications describe and analyze factors contributing to safety-related incidents around the world. The lack of sufficient trained, qualified staff members is addressed through IAEA programs. Initiatives include national, regional, and interregional technical cooperation projects, educational workshops, and fellowship training for radiation oncology professionals, as well as technical assistance in developing and initiating local radiation therapy, safety education, and training programs. The agency is also active in developing staffing guidelines and encourages advanced planning at a national level, aided by information collection systems such as the Directory of Radiotherapy Centers and technical cooperation project personnel planning, to prevent shortages of staff. The IAEA also promotes the safe procurement of equipment for radiation therapy centers within a comprehensive technical cooperation program that includes clinical, medical physics, and radiation safety aspects and review of local infrastructure (room layout, shielding, utilities, and radiation safety), the availability of qualified staff members (radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and radiation technologists and therapists), as well as relevant imaging, treatment planning, dosimetry, and quality control items. The IAEA has taken the lead in developing a comprehensive program that addresses all of these areas of concern and is actively contributing to the national and international efforts to make radiation therapy safer in all settings, including resource-limited settings.

Overview of National Drug Policy of Iran

Overview of National Drug Policy of Iran

Monitoring Software Quality Evolution for Defects

Quality control charts, especially c-charts, can help monitor software quality evolution for defects over time. c-charts of the Eclipse and Gnome systems showed that for systems experiencing active maintenance and updates, quality evolution is complicated and dynamic. The authors identify six quality evolution patterns and describe their implications. Quality assurance teams can use c-charts and patterns to monitor quality evolution and prioritize their efforts.

Evaluating the reliability of component‐based software systems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the reliability of individual software components in terms of the probability that each software component performs its intended functionality successfully. The overall software system reliability is evaluated.Design/methodology/approachThis paper incorporates the reliability behavior of component‐based software system using Markov process.FindingsIt is found that the component‐based software system reliability increases as the component reliability increases.Originality/valueThis paper explores new directions in evaluating the reliability of component‐based software systems for software reliability and offers practical help to researchers and software industries in reliable software development. The proposed software simulation technique will act as a tool for the software quality assurance team for evaluating the reliability of component‐based software systems.

Break Down the Wall Between QA and IT

Break Down the Wall Between QA and IT

A systems approach to the early recognition and rapid administration of best practice therapy in sepsis and septic shock

The early recognition and treatment of sepsis is paramount to reducing the mortality of this disease. However, unlike trauma, stroke or acute myocardial infarction, the initial signs of sepsis are subtle and easily missed by clinicians. Thus, hospital-based systems are needed to identify and triage patients who might be septic. This review focuses on the early diagnosis of sepsis and the implementation of a systems-based approach to help coordinate the identification and treatment of patients with this disease. Alterations in traditional hemodynamic parameters, such as blood pressure and heart rate, are poor predictors of the presence of septic shock. Other more subtle findings (such as the 10 signs of vitality) are stronger determinants of poor tissue perfusion in a patient who may be septic. Early detection of a patient who is 'in trouble' on the ward by bedside nurses or physicians and activation of a medical emergency team has been shown to improve outcome. By coupling the medical emergency team with early goal-directed therapy, patients with sepsis can be discovered earlier and have therapy instituted within the so-called 'golden hour', first appreciated with trauma care. The institution of a rapid response system for the detection and treatment of septic shock requires a multidisciplinary approach. The infrastructure to create such a system must be facilitated by administrators and implemented by front-line healthcare providers. Continuous assessment of the outcome benefit of such a system by a quality assurance team is the final part of a truly integrated approach to sepsis treatment.

Pre-trial quality assurance processes for an intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) trial: PARSPORT, a UK multicentre Phase III trial comparing conventional radiotherapy and parotid-sparing IMRT for locally advanced head and neck cancer

The purpose of this study was to compare conventional radiotherapy with parotid gland-sparing intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) using the PARSPORT trial. The validity of such a trial depends on the radiotherapy planning and delivery meeting a defined standard across all centres. At the outset, many of the centres had little or no experience of delivering IMRT; therefore, quality assurance processes were devised to ensure consistency and standardisation of all processes for comparison within the trial. The pre-trial quality assurance (QA) programme and results are described. Each centre undertook exercises in target volume definition and treatment planning, completed a resource questionnaire and produced a process document. Additionally, the QA team visited each participating centre. Each exercise had to be accepted before patients could be recruited into the trial. 10 centres successfully completed the quality assurance exercises. A range of treatment planning systems, linear accelerators and delivery methods were used for the planning exercises, and all the plans created reached the standard required for participation in this multicentre trial. All 10 participating centres achieved implementation of a comprehensive and robust IMRT programme for treatment of head and neck cancer.

Developments in the Management of Patients with Lung Cancer in the United Kingdom Have Improved Quality of Care

The management of patients with lung cancer has undergone significant improvement in the last decade in the United Kingdom. The 5-year survival for all patients diagnosed with lung cancer had remained unchanged at 5% over the previous decade, well behind Europe and the United States. Together, government and medical bodies produced guidelines based on best available evidence. The dissemination of these guidelines into clinical practice became the remit of Cancer Networks. The establishment of Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) has streamlined care and allowed individual teams to discuss patients' management within a wider body of expertise. The Cancer Network quality assurance team assesses the MDTs to ensure that standards are maintained. Though the efficacy of the MDTs in improving quality and consistency of care for patients with lung cancer is irrefutable, the effects on overall survival rates are less certain. The majority of patients have advanced incurable disease at presentation. Changes in awareness of the general public and in the primary care setting are required to address this issue. Severe co-morbidities in patients with potentially curable disease can also preclude operative treatment. The delivery of specialized care for patients with lung cancer has improved dramatically in the United Kingdom with the advent of national guidelines and the local MDT. These measures may not be enough in remedying the poor long-term survival of patients with lung cancer in the United Kingdom without attention to underlying cause. A holistic attitude to the "Big Three" smoking-induced diseases offers hope of novel approach to this problem.

Assuring high quality treatment delivery in clinical trials – Results from the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) study 03.04 “RADAR” set-up accuracy study

Background and purpose A multi-centre clinical trial for prostate cancer patients provided an opportunity to introduce conformal radiotherapy with dose escalation. To verify adequate treatment accuracy prior to patient recruitment, centres submitted details of a set-up accuracy study (SUAS). We report the results of the SUAS, the variation in clinical practice and the strategies used to help centres improve treatment accuracy. Materials and methods The SUAS required each of the 24 participating centres to collect data on at least 10 pelvic patients imaged on a minimum of 20 occasions. Software was provided for data collection and analysis. Support to centres was provided through educational lectures, the trial quality assurance team and an information booklet. Results Only two centres had recently carried out a SUAS prior to the trial opening. Systematic errors were generally smaller than those previously reported in the literature. The questionnaire identified many differences in patient set-up protocols. As a result of participating in this QA activity more than 65% of centres improved their treatment delivery accuracy. Conclusions Conducting a pre-trial SUAS has led to improvement in treatment delivery accuracy in many centres. Treatment techniques and set-up accuracy varied greatly, demonstrating a need to ensure an on-going awareness for such studies in future trials and with the introduction of dose escalation or new technologies.

Transdisciplinary Research and Evaluation for Community Health Initiatives

Transdisciplinary research and evaluation projects provide valuable opportunities to collaborate on interventions to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Given team members' diverse backgrounds and roles or responsibilities in such projects, members' perspectives are significant in strengthening a project's infrastructure and improving its organizational functioning. This article presents an evaluation mechanism that allows team members to express the successes and challenges incurred throughout their involvement in a multisite transdisciplinary research project. Furthermore, their feedback is used to promote future sustainability and growth. Guided by a framework known as organizational development, the evaluative process was conducted by a neutral entity, the Quality Assurance Team. A mixed-methods approach was utilized to garner feedback and clarify how the research project goals could be achieved more effectively and efficiently. The multiple benefits gained by those involved in this evaluation and implications for utilizing transdisciplinary research and evaluation teams for health initiatives are detailed.

Employing user profiles to test a new version of a GUI component in its context of use

Advancement in reusable component technology has had a significant impact on the development of complex graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which are front-ends to most of today's software. Software developers can, with very little effort, integrate components into their software's GUI. Problems, however, arise when new versions of GUI components replace their predecessors in an implementation. Often, the inclusion of a new version of a component breaks some part of the software, i.e., tasks that end-users were able to perform before modifications were made can no longer be performed. Software developers (who also happen to be component users) are unable to perform adequate regression testing in this context because of several factors, including lack of source code, environmental side-effects on GUI rendering, event-driven nature of GUIs, and large number of possible permutations of events. This paper presents a new technique that end-users' quality assurance (QA) teams can employ to test the new version of a component in its application context by using the existing version as a baseline. The technique combines lightweight event-level dynamic profiling to collect user profiles in a transparent manner, GUI reverse engineering to extract the structure of the component's GUI, test case execution to replay the collected profiles on the new version, and GUI oracles that collect properties from the existing version. Empirical studies demonstrate the practicality, usefulness, and limitations of the technique.